characteristics of antibiotics

What is the main characteristics of antibiotics described as penicillin (pen) ?

2. State specifically how pen inhibit bacterial growth.

3. What is meant by natural and synthetic pen; give one example for each ?

4. What are penicillnases ? is there any other term for that?

5. What is meant by the term VRE ?

6. How do tetracycline work? Why are those broad spectrum?

7. State 2 disadvantages of tetracycline ?

8. Why do antibiotics that work against plasma membrane have low selective toxicity?

9. If an antibiotic is bacteriostatic, what does that mean? If you are a Physician, will you recommend to your patient?

10. Describe specifically how sulpha drugs work? Does it work on our metabolic pathway too ?

11. What is therapeutic index (TI) ? Is low or high TI needed for a drug to be a good drug?

12. Choose the right answers out of all these choices given (you can highlight correct answer):

The ideal antimicrobial should be : Note only one is correct. Please highlight your choice.

broadly or selective toxic;

slightly or more potent;

stable or unstable;

soluble or insoluble in body fluids

13. Can penicillin work against worms, E.coli or Mycoplasma? Why or why not ?

14. A drug is synthetically made in a way to impair mitochondria by an industrialist. A medical representative has given you free samples to try. Will you prescribe that drug to a patient who has Staphylococcal infection? Why or why not ? HINT- Does prokaryotic cell has organelles such as mitochondria?

15. How does Chloramphenicol work ? Is this drug a drug of choice? Explain why or why not? Under what circumstance this drug is used ?

16. Does amphotericin B or polyenes work against eukaryotic/prokaryotic cells ? HINT- amphotericin B or polyenes is drug used for fungal infections.

Note- Though we did not discuss Question 5, but you can do research and answer that question. VRE are of major concern in hospital setting just like MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staph aureus).