Midterm Micro

What is the difference between physical control and chemical control in defending the respiratory and digestive tracts?

Physical control uses mechanisms like cilia to move pathogens up and out; chemical control uses stomach acid (low pH) to kill bacteria and viruses.

What are the four classic signs of inflammation?

Swelling, warmth, redness, and pain.

What is the role of the human microbiome in health, and what happens when antibiotics are used?

It protects against pathogenic invaders; antibiotics disrupt it, potentially allowing pathogens to invade.

What is an antigen?

A foreign substance that stimulates an immune response.

What is a helminth?

A worm or parasite.

If you take an antibiotic and develop C. diff or a yeast infection after treatment, what is this infection called?

Superinfection.

What is the purpose of antibiotics?

To fight bacterial infections and they are not effective against viral infections like the flu.

What is the term for the ratio of a drug's toxic dose to its minimum effective dose, used to predict potential toxic reactions?

Therapeutic index.

What distinguishes gram-negative from gram-positive bacteria in Gram staining?

Gram-negative bacteria have less peptidoglycan and stain red; gram-positive bacteria have more peptidoglycan and stain purple.

In antimicrobial treatment, what is the goal regarding host cells?

To damage the infection while sparing host cells (treat the pathogen, not the host).

Where do endogenous infections originate?

From inside our own cells.

What are exotoxins?

Toxins produced outside of our cells by pathogenic organisms.

What do virulence measures assess?

The degree of pathogenicity and the amount of damage a pathogen can cause.

What is the term for having Covid-19 without symptoms?

Asymptomatic.

What is a true pathogen?

A disease-causing agent that can affect healthy individuals.

What is hematopoiesis?

The creation of blood cells RBCs, WBCs, and Plasma.

What is septicemia?

Sepsis in the blood that triggers infection.

What does it mean if a virus is naked?

It lacks a viral envelope; the genome and capsid are present as a nucleocapsid.

What does broad spectrum mean in antibiotics?

Targets a wide range of pathogens, including both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.

What does narrow spectrum mean?

Targets a specific group of bacteria.

What is lipopolysaccharide and which bacteria have it?

A component of the outer envelope of gram-negative bacteria that provides protection; these bacteria have less peptidoglycan.