1. Treatment of Infectious Disease

2. Antimicrobial agents
Chemical substances that either kill microbes or prevent their growth
Term “antibiotic” literally means “destroyer of life:
Most common term to refer to a drug used to treat bacterial infections
Can be either microbistatic or microbicidal
Microbistatic-inhibits or prevents the growth of microbes
Microbicidal-kills the microbe

3. Treatment of Bacterial Diseases
Relatively easy to find and develop drugs that treat bacterial diseases
These drugs target structural functions and metabolic characteristics of the bacteria.
Can be grouped into categories based on mode of action

4. Mode of Action Inhibit cell wall synthesis Inhibit protein synthesis
Inhibit nucleic acid synthesis
Or inhibit some other chemical reaction

5. Penicillins Mode of action: interferes with cell wall
Treats: ear infections, sepsis, wound infections, etc
Important to take all of the prescribed medication

6. Cephalosporins Mode of action: interferes with cell wall synthesis
Treats: skin and soft tissue infections, and can be used in place of penicillin if allergy is present

7. Tetracycline Inhibits protein synthesis
Treats: H.pylori, skin infections, UTI’s and STD’s
Can have severe side effects including interfering with bone formation in a developing fetus

8. Rifampicin Inhibits RNA synthesis Treats: Tuberculosis
Can stain contact lenses

9. Erythromycin Inhibit protein synthesis
Treats: endocarditis, rheumatic fever, and gonorrhea
Can make skin more sensitive to sunlight
Can be toxic if used in high doses for prolonged periods of time

10. Sulfonomides Interferes with nucleic acid synthesis
Treats: kidney infections and other UTI’s
Can have allergic reactions

11. Treatment of Viral Illnesses
Drugs that inhibit viral infections are highly toxic to host cells because viruses use the host’s metabolism
Most illnesses due to virus are treated symptomatically until the immune system eliminates the virus

12. Antiviral drugs
Antiviral drugs typically target virus specific enzymes in nucleic acid synthesis

13. Acyclovir Inhibits nucleic acid synthesis
Treats: herpes simplex viruses including Herpes Zoster viruses

14. Amantadine
Antiviral used to prevent or decrease the symptoms of influenza among those that are at risk
Inhibit replication of virus

15. AZT Inhibits the HIV genome Treats the symptoms of HIV
Patients are also prescribed proteases that interfere with the packaging of the HIV genome into virus particles

16. Treatment of Fungal and Parasitic Diseases
Challenging due to the toxicity to human tissue
These medication target the pathogens’ replicative pathway

17. Antifungals Inhibit sterol synthesis or disrupt the cell membrane
Treats: systemic fungal infections and histoplasmosis
Can be toxic to human tissue.

18. Azole derivatives
Targets the pathogen’s replicative pathway.
Treatment of fungal and parasitic diseases.

19. Amphotericin B
Inhibits the sterol synthesis or disrupts the cell membrane.
Treats fungal infections.

20. Antihelminthic drugs Target adult worms that no longer replicate
Mode of action: inhibit fundamental processes like muscle function
Treats: helminth infectious in animals, trichinella spirialis and avermectins (lice)

21. Antiprotozoan drugs
Malaria was successfully treated for years with chloroquine
Recently, a certain species has become resistant to this drug
In these areas, a combination of sulfonamide and pyrimethamine are used

22. Resistance to Antimicrobal Agents
This has been an ongoing problem for the past years.
Microbes are constantly evolving, enabling them to efficiently adapt to new environments.
Antimicrobial resistance is the ability of microbes to grow in the presence of a drug that would normally kill them or limit their growth.