week 12 Flashcards
Spectrum of activity of antibiotics
- Antimicrobials are classified according to activity
- Some agents have narrow spectrum, some have broad
- Some antibiotics kill a bacterium
○ bactericidal - Some prevent growth of bacterium but do not kill it
○ Bacteriostatic
○ Effective: suspends growth, buys the immune system time
measuring drug susceptibility
- Antibiotic effectiveness depends on
○ Organism being treated
○ Attainable tissue levels of the drug, not all penetrate as well as others
○ Route of administration- In Vitro we measure the min inhibitory concentration (MIC of an antibiotic against its target)
○ Serial dilution in a 96-well plate
○ E-strips (MIC strip tests)
○ Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion assay
Downside to these tests: takes time, patients may die
- In Vitro we measure the min inhibitory concentration (MIC of an antibiotic against its target)
Antibiotic mechanisms of action
- Classic targets include
○ Cell wall synthesis
○ Cell membrane integrity
○ DNA synthesis
○ RNA synthesis
○ Protein synthesis
Metabolism
Cell wall antibiotics
-Sugar molecules NAM and NAG made in cytosol
-Linked by a transglucosylase enzyme at cell wall
-Side chains of NAM molecules cross-linked by transpeptidase to provide rigidity
Beta-lactam antibiotics
- Derived from fungi, has beta lactam ring structure to which R groups can be added
- Transpeptidase and transglucosylase enzymes involved in cell wall building are aka penicillin binding proteins
- Resistance to these (2 mechanisms)
- Inheritance of a gene that. Encodes for beta-lactamase gene
i. Can be overcome by inhibitors - Inheritance of a gene that codes for an altered PBP (penicillin binding protein) that does not bind the antibiotic
- Inheritance of a gene that. Encodes for beta-lactamase gene
- Microbes are quick to adapt and become resistant
Some antibiotics are only used in worst case scenarios to slow down development of resistance
Other Target cell-wall synthesis antibiotics
- Bacitracin: binds to bactoprenol lipid carrier, inhibits transport of the peptidoglycan monomers to the growing chain (toxic)
- Cycloserine: inhibits the two enzymes that make a precursor peptides of the NAM side-chain
- vancomycin binds to D -Ala- D -Ala terminal end of the disaccharide unit & prevents bindings of transglucosylases and transpeptidases
Some bacteria have incorporated D-lactate into the D-Ala terminus to develop resistance
Drugs that affect bacterial membrane integrity
- Gramicidin: cyclic peptide that inserts into bacterial membrane
- Polymyxin: binds to outer and inner membranes of G-bacteria, disrupts inner membrane like a detergent
- Daptomycin: aggregated gram positive bacterial membranes to form channels
Effective against MRSA
Drugs that affect synthesis and integrity
- Sulfa drugs: interfere with nucleic acid synthesis by preventing synthesis of THF that is a cofactor in the synthesis of nucleic acid precursors
○ All organisms use THF to synthesize nucleic acids
○ Sulfa drugs are selectively toxic to bacteria because bacteria is the only ones that can make it, incorporated into pathway that shuts the pathway down- Quinolones: target microbial topoisomerases, enzymes essential for changes in DNA to allow replication and transcription
○ These drugs are toxic to mitochondria because mitochondria uses the same mechanisms and enzymes to replicate genomes, independently of cells genome
- Quinolones: target microbial topoisomerases, enzymes essential for changes in DNA to allow replication and transcription
RNA synthesis inhibitors
- Binds to exist tunnel of bacterial RNA polymerase, blocks RNA from leaving polymerase structure
- Stops transcription
- Turns bodily secretions orange while in use
Examples: rifampicin and actinomycin
Drugs that affect DNA synthesis and integrity
- Ex: Metronidazole, example of a pro-drug
○ Activated on reduction by microbial flavodoxin or ferredoxin, found in microaerophilic and anaerobic bacteria
○ Nicks DNA at random when activated
Not effective against aerobic bacteria
Protein synthesis inhibitors
- Binds and interfere with bacterial rRNA functions
- Bacterial ribosomes and eukaryotic ribosomes have fundamentally different properties
○ (ribosomes catalyze linkage between amino acids during translations)
- Bacterial ribosomes and eukaryotic ribosomes have fundamentally different properties
Targeting the 30S subunit
- Aminoglycosides: bind 16S ribosomal RNA and causes translation misreading of mRNA
○ Results: jumbled peptides- tetracyclines binds and distorts ribosomal A site
Interferes with bone development
- tetracyclines binds and distorts ribosomal A site
Targeting te 50S subunit
- Macrolides and lacosamide’s: inhibit translocation of the growing peptide chain
- Chloramphenicol: inhibit peptidyl transferase activity
○ Can depress production of blood cells in the bone marrows - Oxazolidinones: binds to the 23S rRNA component of the 50S ribosome, prevent formation of 70S complex
Streptogramins: 2 types, both bind to peptidyl transferase site
- Chloramphenicol: inhibit peptidyl transferase activity
Targeting aminoacyl tRNA synthetases
- mupirocin binds to bacterial enzymes that attach amino acids to the end of tRNA molecules, stops protein synthesis
○ Used in creams to treated infections caused by gram positive bacteria
Cannot be used internally, degraded in bloodstream
Problem of antibiotic resistance
- Many antibiotics derived from nature
○ Not an issue in soil microbes that make them use them very sparingly
Antibiotic resistance has become an issue in medicine since we have consistently used high concentrations of this for long periods of time
Antibiotic resistance strategy 1: keep antibiotics out of the cell
- Destroy antibiotic before it can enter the cell
○ Ex: beta-lactamases- Decrease membrane permeability across the outer membrane (express narrower pores), but not great for microbe, reduces amount of nutrients for it
○ Ex: fluoroquinolone resistance - Pump the antibiotic out of the cell via specific transporters
○ Ex: tetracycline resistance
○ Efflux pump the resistant microbe makes can be used by cell to pump the antibiotic out, has no effect since it isn’t there long enough to inhibit
Can be dangerous if the efflux pump can export many types of antibiotics despite differing antibiotic structures
- Decrease membrane permeability across the outer membrane (express narrower pores), but not great for microbe, reduces amount of nutrients for it
Antibiotic resistance strategy 2: prevent antibiotics from binding to their target
- Modify target so it no longer binds the antibiotic
○ Ex: modify shape of PBPs or ribosomal proteins
Add modifying groups to the antibiotic so that the antibiotic is inactivated
Antibiotic resistance strategy 3: dislodge an antibiotic bound to its target
- Ribosome protection or rescue
Some gram positive organisms can make proteins that bind to ribosomes and dislodge or prevent binding of antibiotics that bind near the peptidyl transferase site
How antibiotic resistance spreads
- Mutation
- Vertical transmission: when cell divides (binary fission) daughter clels will carry same resistance
- Horizontal transmission: cell with element can conjugate with another cell, and transfer the plasmids with the resistance element
Antibiotics and your microbiome
- Antibiotics have the potential to destroy the ecological balance the microbiome exists in
○ Collateral damage
○ A huge number of diseases are now recognized to be associated with a lack of diversity in the gut microbiome
We should still take them as they are lifesaving drugs, used appropriately
Influenza virus: example of a pathogen
Negative strand RNA virus
- Influenza A: most common in western world
- Influenza B:
○ narrower host range than A
○ Can cause serious disease, but mutates slower - Influenza C
○ Narrower host range than A
○ Mild disease, not easily spread - Influenza D
○ Never detected in humans
Associated with swine and cattle
Differences between flus and colds
Cold:
- Usually a cough
- Sore throat, congestion
- Sometimes a headache, muscle aches and pains
- Not often a fever, no exhaustion or GI symptoms
- Approx 1 week
Influenza
- Usually a cough
- Sore throat, fever, severe headache, muscle aches and pains, extreme exhaustion
- Sometimes congestion and GI symptoms
- 2-3 weeks or longer
Virion structure
- No geometrical capsid
- Instead, a shell of matrix proteins (M1) that surround the 8 RNA chromosome fragments
- Matrix surrounded by a membrane envelope
○ Derived from the host cell during budding
Viral envelope proteins hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) stud the surface of the virus
Virion genome
8 negative sense RNA segments
○ Each coated with NPs (nucleocapsid proteins) that encodes 1 protein
○ 2 segments undergo splicing to encode further proteins
Each segment packaged with an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase complex
○ If you make your own polymerase and package with genome, as t=genome is released, you can make your RNA genome, churning out genomes, don’t have to wait
○ Uses their own machinery to make their own enzyme to speedily replicate
* During viral assembly I infected cell, segments are precisely packaged
○ Link to each other in order as they arrange themselves
○ Segments line like bundle of sticks
Tiny extensions connect them