Test 3 Antimicrobial Drugs Flashcards
What is selective toxicity
A basic principle of antimicrobial therapy that states that an antimicrobial agent should selectively kill or neutralize the target microbe and not the host cell.
What is a therapeutic dose?
The dose of an antibiotic drug that is required for clinical treatment.
What is a toxic dose?
The dose of the anitbiotic drug that produces adverse effects.
What is a therapeutic index?
The ratio of the toxic dose to the therapeutic dose
What are side effects?
Undesirable impacts of drugs on host cells.
What are narrow-spectrum drugs?
Drugs that attack only a few specific pathogens.
What broad-spectrum drugs?
Drugs that attack many different pathogens
What is a Cidal agent
Drugs that kill the microbes that they target.
What is a static agent?
Drugs that do not kill the microbes that they target but rather inhibit further growth.
What is the minimial inhibitory concentration (MIC)?
The lowest concentration of a drug that inhibits the target pathogen’s growth.
What is the Kirby-Bauer method?
A technique for assessing the susceptibility of a microorganism to an antimicrobial agent.
What are five mechanisms of action for antimicrobial drugs?
- Acting as metabolic antagonists
- Disrupting the cell membrane
- Inhibiting cell wall synthesis
- Inhibiting nucleic acid synthesis
- Inhibiting protein synthesis
The beta-lactam ring is a characterstic feature of …
Penicillins
How do penicillins have their effects?
They inhibit the transpeptidation step in a bacterial cell wall synthesis, so they inhibit the growth of a new peptidoglycan
What is the most effective form of penicillin?
Penicillin G
