Drugs and Chemotherapy

These flashcards cover vocabulary related to drugs, chemotherapy, and microbial interactions based on the lecture notes.

Antimicrobial chemotherapy

The use of drugs to control infection.

Selective toxicity

A property of a drug that allows it to kill infectious agents without harming the host's cells.

Microbicidal

Describes a drug that kills microbes.

Microbistatic

Describes a drug that inhibits the growth of microbes.

Antibiotics

Substances produced by microorganisms that inhibit or destroy other microorganisms.

Semisynthetic drugs

Drugs that are chemically modified in the laboratory after being isolated from natural sources.

Synthetic drugs

Antimicrobial compounds synthesized entirely in the laboratory through chemical reactions.

Narrow spectrum

Antimicrobials effective against a limited array of microbial types.

Broad spectrum

Antimicrobials effective against a wide variety of microbial types.

Prophylaxis

Use of a drug to prevent potential infection in a person at risk.

Drug resistance

An adaptive response in which microorganisms begin to tolerate an amount of drug that would ordinarily be inhibitory.

Synergistic effect

The combined effect of two or more drugs that is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

Aminoglycosides

A class of drugs that inhibit protein synthesis and are used against bacteria.

Fluoroquinolones

A class of drugs that inhibit DNA replication and are broadly effective against various bacteria.

Beta-lactam drugs

A group of antibiotics that include penicillins and cephalosporins, which interfere with cell wall synthesis.

E-test

A test that determines the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of antibiotics against bacteria.

Therapeutic index (TI)

The ratio of the dose of a drug that is toxic to humans to its minimum effective dose.

Superinfection

An infection that occurs after or on top of an earlier infection, typically due to the disruption of normal flora.

Competitive inhibition

A process where a drug competes with the substrate for the enzyme's active site, inhibiting normal metabolism.