Antibiotics, Antivirals, and Resistance Lecture Flashcards

Flashcards covering the vocabulary of antimicrobial medications, their mechanisms of action, and the processes of bacterial resistance identified in the lecture.

Aminoglycosides

Medications that act on protein synthesis by targeting protein subunits.

Tetracyclines

Broad-spectrum antibiotics that block the attachment of tRNA during protein synthesis.

Tetracycline teeth

Mineral deposits or rings in the mouth caused by overexposure to tetracycline.

Metabolic inhibitors

Drugs that function through competitive inhibition by binding or competing with an enzyme's active site.

Synergistic effects

The outcome when medications used in combination work better together to target microbial action.

Sulfonamides

Also known as sulfa drugs, these are used for uncomplicated UTIs and inhibit the metabolic pathway that forms folic acid.

Folic acid

A substance necessary for neural tube closure during pregnancy; its formation is stopped by sulfonamides to kill bacteria.

Chloroquine

A medication used to treat malaria that causes kinks or cross-links in the DNA double helix to prevent parasite replication.

Quinolones

Broad-spectrum medications that inhibit DNA helicases to prevent the unwrapping of DNA.

Cipro

A common quinolone used for UTIs, respiratory infections, and skin infections.

Baytril

A quinolone or fluoroquinolone given to animals to promote faster growth, which contributes to the creation of resistant microbes.

Nucleotide analogs

Chemicals that look like nucleotides and are inserted into the virion during replication, making the virus non-functional.

Acyclovir

A nucleotide analog used to treat herpes virus infections.

Ribafarin

A medication used to treat RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus).

AZT (Azidothymidine)

A nucleotide analog used to treat HIV/AIDS by reducing the virus's ability to propagate.

Protease inhibitors

Drugs that impact the enzyme needed for a virus to get off of the host cell membrane.

Neuraminidase

An enzyme that cleaves a virus off the host cell membrane to allow it to infect other cells.

Tamiflu

A flu medication that works on neuraminidase to trap the virus in a single cell.

Amantadine

A medication that stops the fusion of a virus to the host cell.

Interferons

Specialized cytokines released against viruses that can be used in lab-developed therapies for viral infections or cancer.

Monoclonal antibody therapy (MAB)

A type of immunotherapy where the drug names end in the suffix MAB.

Ketolides

Newer medications that have replaced erythromycin for fighting gram-positive respiratory infections.

Linezolid

A newer line of medication very effective against MRSA and secondary bacterial pneumonias.

Conjugation

A process through which gram-negative bacteria share plasmids to obtain antibiotic resistance.

Bacteriophages

Viruses that can share genes across bacterial cells, contributing to resistance.

Extracellular viruses

Viruses located outside of cells which antiviral drugs generally do not kill.

Narrow spectrum

An antimicrobial drug that is effective against a specific group of microbes, such as targeting only lipopolysaccharides.