Lecture 2 Antibiotics Flashcards
What are antibiotics?
Compounds (produced by one organism) that block growth of a second organism
- Usually low-molecular weight compounds
What is the characteristic of a medically applicable antibiotic?
- Medically applicable antibiotic:
> Compound that inhibits growth of microorganisms, but(ideally) does not influence human metabolism.
> Vast majority of antibiotics inhibits activity of a specific Protein (=target) in the bacterium.
What antibiotic is often used to grow bacteria on that have a selection marker?
Tetracycline
Examples of targets of antibiotics?
- Cell wall synthesis
- Folic acid metabolism
- Cytoplasmic membrane structure
- DNA gyrase
- RNA elongation
- DNA-directed RNA pol.
- Protein synthesis (30S inhibitors, tRNA)
Why is resistance likely in tuberculosis bacteria?
Small range of targets
What promising new antibiotics target ATP synthase?
Newly reported series of compound, Diarylquinolines (DARQs) prevent grow of M. tuberculosis.=> Promising new antibioticATP synthase validated as target by binding assays and activity measurements.
What are questions to ask regarding the new antibiotic target ATP synthesis?
How are the bacteria killed?What does death mean for a bacterium? What are the weak points in bacteria ?(deciding on survival or death)How do bacteria defend themselves? Factors shortening tuberculosis treatment?Synergy between (energy metabolism) inhibitors?
