Antibiotics and Antimicrobial Therapy

Flashcards covering key terms and concepts related to antibiotics, antimicrobial therapy, mechanisms of action, and drug susceptibility.

Antibiotics

Metabolic products of aerobic bacteria and fungi crucial for treating bacterial infections.

Actinomycetes

A group of filamentous bacteria that are primary producers of many antibiotics.

Selective Toxicity

The ability of an antimicrobial agent to harm infective agents without causing significant harm to the host.

Broad Spectrum Antibiotics

Antibiotics that are effective against a wide variety of microbes.

Narrow Spectrum Antibiotics

Antibiotics that target specific groups of organisms.

Biofilms

Clusters of microbes that form protective layers on surfaces, making them resistant to antimicrobial agents.

Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC)

The lowest concentration of a specific drug required to inhibit the growth of a microorganism.

Therapeutic Index

The ratio of the dose of a drug that produces toxicity to the dose that produces an effective clinical response.

Disk Diffusion Assay (Kirby-Bauer)

A test that measures the effectiveness of antimicrobials by assessing zones of inhibition around antibiotic disks.

Nucleic Acid Synthesis Inhibitors

Drugs that interfere with critical processes in DNA replication and transcription, inhibiting bacterial growth.

Cell Wall Inhibitors

Drugs like Penicillins and Cephalosporins that block the synthesis and repair of the bacterial cell wall.

Enzyme Activity Disruption

The blocking of essential enzyme activity through inhibitors, affecting metabolic pathways necessary for bacterial growth.

Antifungal Agents

Agents developed to treat fungal infections by exploiting unique features of fungal cells, such as cell wall components.

Antiviral Therapies

Treatment methods that target mechanisms of viral replication and assembly.

Resistance Development

The process by which microbes acquire the ability to resist the effects of drugs that once treated them effectively.

Current Research in Antibiotics

Investigations aimed at discovering new antimicrobial compounds from diverse microbial sources.