PPT 14

Antibacterial Medications

Medications that target specific bacterial processes and structures such as cell wall synthesis, protein synthesis, nucleic acid synthesis, metabolic pathways, and cell membranes.

Selective Toxicity

Property of antimicrobial medications to cause greater harm to microbes by interfering with essential structures or properties common in microbes but not in host cells.

Resistance to Antimicrobials

Ability of bacteria to develop innate or acquired resistance to antimicrobial medications through mechanisms like spontaneous mutations and horizontal gene transfer.

Spectrum of Activity

Range of effectiveness of antimicrobial medications, classified as broad-spectrum for a wide range of pathogens or narrow-spectrum for a limited range requiring identification of the pathogen.

Mechanisms of Action

Ways in which antibacterial medications work, including targeting cell wall synthesis, protein synthesis, nucleic acid synthesis, metabolic pathways, and cell membranes.

What is a chemotherapeutic agent

A chemical substance naturally produced by microorganism that has the capacity to inhibit or kill other microbes

Protein Synthesis

The process by which cells make proteins using information from RNA.

Oxazolidinones

A class of antibacterial medications that are bacteriostatic against Gram-positive bacteria.

Pleuromutilins

Antibacterial medications that are bacteriostatic against Gram-positive bacteria by binding to the 50S ribosomal subunit.

Streptogramins

A combination of two medications that bind to different sites on the 50S ribosomal subunit, inhibiting protein synthesis.

Nucleic Acid Synthesis

The process of creating nucleic acids like DNA and RNA.

Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC)

The lowest concentration of an antimicrobial medication that prevents bacterial growth in vitro.

Disc Diffusion Method

A method used to determine the susceptibility of bacterial strains to antibiotics by measuring the zone of inhibition.

Mechanisms of Acquired Resistance

Ways in which bacteria develop resistance to antimicrobial medications, such as through enzyme production or target molecule alteration.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

A bacterium that causes tuberculosis and can develop resistance to first-line antibiotics through mutation.

Streptococcus pneumoniae

Bacterium causing pneumonia and other infections, some strains of which have acquired penicillin resistance.