PHAR7: Antimicrobials Flashcards
How do microorganisms cause toxicity?
In the wrong place, with the wrong activity, or in the wrong quantity they can cause toxicity and pathology through exhausting critical resources, invasion and killing of cells, or production of toxins.
List they types of microbes
- Bacteria
- Fungi
- Viruses
- Protoazoa
- Helminths
- Algae
- Prions
List three characteristics of microbes
- May be unicellular or multicellular
- May exist individually as single cells or in colonies
- Are present in all three domains of cellular life (Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya)
How do bacteria divide?
Binary fission
Out of all the types of microbes, which have a cell wall?
Bacteria (peptidoglycan) and fungi (chitin), the rest do not.
What size of ribosomes do the different types of microbes have?
bacteria have 70S whereas all the others have 80S.
Viruses and prions can be considered as?
Non-cellular
What are the two types of DNA present in bacteria cells?
Plasmids and nucleoids
What does synergy mean?
The interaction of biological structures or substances that produce an overall effect greater than the sum of individual effects of any of them
What other factors can affect the pathology?
- compromised host immunity
- translocation
What are the different types of bacterial shapes?
- coccus
- dilococci
- tetrad
- streptococci
- coccobacillus
- filamentous
- staphylococci
- bacillus
- diplobacilli
- palisades
- strephtobacilli
- club rod
- vibrio
- comma
Describe the cell wall structure of gram positive and gram negative bacteria.
+ve: thick peptidoglycan cell wall, one lipid bilayer
-ve: thin peptidoglycan layer in between two lipid bilayers (can have up to 40)
What was it found that arsenic-containing compounds helped cure? What was the compound called?
Syphilis infections
Organoarsenic compounds
What does magic bullet refer to?
Describes an ideal therapeutic agent, i.e. one that would only affect the target organism selectively. The more selectively toxic we can make a compound the greater the opportunity for application without side effects
How is DNA contained in the different types of microorganisms?
- Bacteria: bacterial chromosomes and plasmids
- Fungi: membrane bound nucleus containing chromosomes
- Protoazoa: micronucleus and macronucleus containing chromosomes
- Helminths: membrane bound nucleus containing chromosomes
- Algae: membrane bound nucleus containing chromosomes
What are the therapeutic methods are there for targeting bacteria?
- stopping genetic material replication
- restricting genetic material component availability
- compromising the structural integrity of the cell
- preventing synthesis of membranes needed for growth
- preventing synthesis of cellular proteins
Discuss the three main classes of biochemical reactions
Class I: target the production of metabolic precursors from substrates such as glucose, and therefore restrict any downstream processes.
Class II: target processes involved in the production of small molecules from metabolic precursors
Class III: target processes involved in the production of macromolecules from small molecule substrates
Antibacterial agents could also be classified how?
- Cell wall inhibitors
- bacterial cell membrane inhibitors
- bacterial protein synthesis inhibitors
- bacterial nucleic acid synthesis and action inhibitors
Name two nucleic acid synthesis inhibitors
PABA -> DHF inhibited by Sulfamethoxazole
DNF->THF inhibited by Trimethoprim
What does Ciprofloxacin do?
inhibition of DNA gyrase (gyrase: a bacterial enzyme that catalyzes the breaking and rejoining of bonds linking adjacent nucleotides in circular DNA to generate supercoiled DNA helices)
What does Rifampicin do?
it inhibits DNA-dependent RNA polymerase activity by forming a stable complex with the enzyme. It thus suppresses the initiation of RNA synthesis.
Name antibiotics that affect the ribosome (GETC)
Tetracyclin Gentamycin Eythromycin Chloramphenicol Fusidic acid
What is the peptidoglycan polymer made up of? How is it bonded?
N-acetylglucosamine (NAG/NAGA) and N-acetylmuramic acid (NAM/NAMA), bonded in an alternating pattern by beta-(1,4)glycosidic linkages
Describe the structure of peptidoglycan cell walls
The peptidoglycan polymers are crossed linked by short peptide chains that give rise to a mesh-like structure composed of repeating parallel peptidoglycan
What is the benefit of the cross-linked structure of bacterial cell walls?
Provides structural rigidity, while remaining porous, and preventing the cell from lysis under the osmotic pressure of the local environment
What amino acid is in the middle of the cross chain linking the peptidoglycan chains?
D-alanine and 2 other amino acids
How do Beta-lactam drugs work?
Covalently binding to the DD-transpeptidase enzymes that are responsible for cross-linking the peptides between peptidoglycan chains.
What beta-lactam compounds are there? (Please Can Ceara Make Cake)
- penicillin
- Cephalosporins
- Monobactams
- Carbapenems
- Clavulanic acid
What are the most common beta-lactam drugs
Penicillin
What does Vancomycin and related compound teichoplanin, do?
Prevent the synthesis of the bacterial cell wall by forming strong hydrogen bonds with the peptides that cross-link the peptidoglycan polymer chains, and thus prevent the formation of the normal lattice/mesh-like structure. Without cross-linking, the cell wall
integrity cannot be achieved, and therefore bacterial cell viability is compromised.
What does Vancomycin and related compound teichoplanin, do?
Prevent the synthesis of the bacterial cell wall by forming strong hydrogen bonds with the peptides that cross-link the peptidoglycan polymer chains, and thus prevent the formation of the normal lattice/mesh-like structure. Without cross-linking, the cell wall
integrity cannot be achieved, and therefore bacterial cell viability is compromised.
Name a bacterial cell membrane disruptor
daptomycin
How do bacterial cell membrane disruptors, such as daptomycin, work?
When multiple daptomycin molecules aggregate, their collective effect is to substantially distort the cell membrane shape, giving rise to holes. Loss of membrane integrity in this way causes depolarisation of the membrane, and consequently, chemical gradients necessary for many synthetic processes cannot be maintained. Ultimately, the bacterium dies though an inability to perform critical biochemical functions.
How do Polymixins work?
They compromise cell membrane integrity. They achieve their selectively for bacterial cells by binding to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) that is highly abundant in Gram-negative bacteria
Why aren’t Polymixins used very often?
Their treatment is often accompanied by a range of off-target effects that has limited their use, particularly since the development of agents with fewer associated toxicities.