Chapter 13: Antimicrobial Drugs Slides Flashcards
What are drugs?
Chemicals that affect physiology in any manner.
What are chemotherapeutic agents?
Drugs that act against diseases.
What are chemotherapeutic agents?
Drugs that act against diseases.
What are antimicrobial agents (antimicrobial)?
Drugs that treat infections.
What are natural antibiotics?
Drug naturally occurring in nature (bacteria and fungus).
What are semisynthetic antimicrobials?
Modified version of natural antibiotic that have a better shelf life and work better against bacteria.
What are synthetic antimicrobials?
Developed from a drug not found in nature (made in a lab).
What happens when you take a bacteriostaic drug away?
When a bacteriostatic drug is taken away, the bacteria can start growing again.
What happens when you take a bacteriocidal drug away?
The bacteria cannot grow even after the antibiotic is gone.
What does chemotherapy do for selective toxicity?
Targets enzyme/pathway critical for bacterial survival
Targets enzyme/pathway not present/very divergent in humans
What drugs are limited due to selective toxicity?
Drugs to treat eukaryotic infections and antiviral drugs.
What is the most common way drugs cause inhibition of the synthesis of bacterial walls?
Most common agents prevent cross-linkage of NAM subunits (peptidoglycan).
What is the most prominent group when it comes to drugs that inhibit the synthesis of cell walls?
Beta-lactams.
What is transpeptidase?
Part of a class of enzyme that crosslinks the peptidoglycan layer and reshaping the cell wall during growth a division.
What enzyme do Beta-lactams attach?
Transpeptidase.
What is attacking the cell wall a good way of killing the cell?
We don’t have cell walls
When bacteria’s cell walls are weak, they eventually lyse.
Why are the semisynthetic derivatives of beta-lactams better?
More stable in acidic environments (stomach)
More readily absorbed (in places like the bloodstream)
Less susceptible to deactivation (by bacteria)
More active against more types of bacteria
How does vancomycin hurt cell walls?
They prevent the enzyme from finishing the NAM cross-bridge in Gram-positive bacteria.
How have bacteria become resistant to vancomycin?
They have changed their amino acids for making peptidogylcan, some vancomycin is not cannot bind and block the enzyme.
How does cycloserine affect bacterial cell walls?
They interfere with particular bridges that link NAM subunits in many Gram-positive bacteria.
How does bacitracin affect bacterial cell walls?
Blocks the transport of NAG and NAM from cytoplasm so they have nothing the rebuild their peptidoglycan walls.
How does isoniazid and ethambutol affect bacterial cell walls?
They disrupt mycolic acid formation in mycobacterial species (specialized for diseases like TB).
Why is inhibiting protein synthesis a good way of selective toxicity?
Prokaryotic ribosomes are 70S (30S and 50S)
Eukaryotic ribosomes are 80S (40S and 60S)
Drugs can selectively target translation.
What is the danger of inhibiting protein synthesis?
Mitochondria of animals and humans also contain 70S ribosomes.
How do aminoglycosides inhibit protein synthesis?
They cause a change in 30S shape, so mRNA is misread. The bacteria can still build proteins, but they are not useful/functional.
How do tetracyclines inhibit protein synthesis?
They block docking sites of tRNA, specifically the A site. Protein synthesis stops.
How do tetracyclines inhibit protein synthesis?
They block docking sites of tRNA, specifically the A site. Protein synthesis stops.
How does chloramphenicol inhibit protein synthesis?
It blocks the peptide bond formation. No protein synthesis can occur.
How do lincosamides inhibit protein synthesis?
They bind to the 50S subunit, blocking proper mRNA movement through ribosomes. This slows the whole process down like an anchor. Protein synthesis stops.
What does linezolid do to inhibit protein synthesis?
It prevents the subunits from sandwiching the DNA between them by affecting the large subunit. Protein cannot be made.
What is polymyxin?
An antibiotic that disrupts the cytoplasmic membranes of Gram-negative bacteria.
Why are antibiotics that disruption cytoplasmic membranes a little dangerous?
They can be toxic to organs like the kidneys if taken orally. Therefore, most are applied topically.
When are antimetabolic agents effective?
When pathogen and host metabolic processes differ (metabolic antagonists).
What is an example of what antimetabolic agents affect?
Some strike the folic acid production pathway because we do not produce our own folic acid.
What do most antivirals block?
DNA/RNA synthesis.
Why do drugs that block DNA replication or RNA transcription have selective toxicity issues?
DNA and RNA are similar in pathogens and hosts so it’s hard to have selective toxicity.