Lecture 9.1: Antimicrobial Agents

Question 1

What is an Antimicrobial Agent?

Answer 1

Chemical that kills or inhibits the growth of microorganisms

Question 2

Types of Antimicrobial Drugs (4)

Answer 2

• Antibacterials
• Antivirals
• Anti-retrovirals
• Antifungals

Question 3

What is Chemotherapy?

Answer 3

Chemical based treatment for diseases caused by bacteria, other microorganisms, parasites, & tumour cells

Question 4

What is an Antibiotic?

Answer 4

• Naturally occurring antimicrobials
• Chemical produced by a microorganism that kills/
inhibits the growth of bacteria

Question 5

What is the concept of Ehrlich’s Magic Bullets?

Answer 5

• Selective Toxicity
• Drugs that specifically target microbial processes,
and not the human host cellular processes

Question 6

What bacteria produce antibiotics? (2)

Answer 6

• Streptomyces
• Bacillus

Question 7

What moulds produce antibiotics? (2)

Answer 7

• Penicillium
• Cephalosporium

Question 8

Who discovered Penicillin? What produces it?

Answer 8

• Ian Fleming
• Produced by the mould Penicillium
chrysogenum

Question 9

What is a Bacteriostatic Antibacterial Agent?

Answer 9

Biological or chemical agent that stops bacteria from reproducing, while not necessarily killing them otherwise

Question 10

What is a Bactericidal Antibacterial Agent?

Answer 10

Biological or chemical agent that kills bacteria

Question 11

What is a Bacteriolytic Antibacterial Agent?

Question 12

What Factors are included in the Classification of Antibiotics? (3)

Answer 12

• Structure - Molecular Structure
• Spectrum of Activity
• Function or Mechanism of Action (how the
drug works)

Question 13

What is similar with Antibiotics in the same Structural Class?

Answer 13

Antibiotics within a structural class usually show similar mode of action, spectrum of activity and toxicity

Question 14

What is meant by the Antimicrobial Spectrum of Activity?

Answer 14

The scope that a drug kills or suppresses the growth of microorganisms

Question 15

What is a Narrow-Spectrum Antimicrobial? Example?

Answer 15

• Drugs that act on a specific kind or strain of microbe
• E.g. isoniazid

Question 16

What is a Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial? Examples?

Answer 16

• Drugs that have a wide antimicrobial scope
• E.g. tetracycline, chloramphenicol

Question 17

What are the 5 Main Mechanisms of Action of Antibacterial Agents?

Answer 17

1) Inhibition of cell wall synthesis
2) Inhibition of protein synthesis
3) Inhibition of nucleic acid synthesis
4) Disruption of cell membrane function
5) Inhibition of metabolism (Antimetabolites)

Question 18

Drugs that cause Inhibition of Bacterial Cell Wall Synthesis (4)

Answer 18

• Penicillins
• Cephalosporins
• Bacitracin
• Vancomycin

Question 19

Drugs that cause Inhibition of Protein Synthesis (4)

Answer 19

• Chloramphenicol
• Macrolides (Erythryomycin)
• Tetracyclines
• Aminoglycosides (Streptomycin)

Question 20

Drugs that cause Inhibition of Nucleic Acid Replication and Transcription (2)

Answer 20

• Quinolones
• Rifampin

Question 21

Drugs that cause Injury to Plasma Membrane (1)

Answer 21

• Polymyxin B

Question 22

Drugs that cause Inhibition of Essential Metabolite Synthesis (2)

Answer 22

• Sulfanimide
• Trimethoprim

Question 23

Honestly, just read the powerpoint theres no point in making notes :/

Answer 23

Good luck :/