1. Antibacterials!
By, Becky Luoma

2. Definition:
Antibacterials are chemicals, which prevent the growth and multiplication of bacteria

3. Infectious Organisms
The types of micro-organisms that can cause different types of diseases are:
Bacteria
Viruses
Fungi
Yeasts
Protozoa
The most typical bacterium are made of:
A single cell
Protective wall
Proteins
Sugars
Lipids
Cytoplasm
Granules of glycogen
Other food reserves
Each cell has a single chromosome that consists of a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) strand
Some may have flagellum
There are some aerobic bacterium that require oxygen to thrive
They will most likely be found infecting surface areas
Skin
Respiratory tract
Anaerobic bacterium are much more dangerous because they need either either very little oxygen or no oxygen at all
They will most likely be found inside of the body
Bowel
Stomach
There are a lot of bacteria that are actually beneficial to the body and do not cause disease
Some exist in or on the body but don’t do anything at all
Some cannot even live in or one the body
The average size of a bacterium is 0.001mm wide

4. Narrow and Broad Spectrum Antibiotics:
Narrow antibiotics can only fight against certain types of bacteria
All penecillins are narrow antiobiotics
Broad spectrum antibiotics are effective when used against many different types of bacteria
Tetracyclines
Aureomycin
Terramycin
To determine what antibiotics must be given to the patient, blood, sputum (mucus), urine, pus, or stool samples must be taken
Because this takes time to do, broad spectrum antibiotics are generally prescribed at first
Once the bacteria that is infecting the body is known, it may be switched to a narrow spectrum antibiotic to target a specific bacterium

5. Mechanism of Action of Antibiotics:
Two main mechanisms to destroy bacteria that antibiotics use
Penicillins and the cephalosporins don’t allow from bacteria to make normal cell walls
It does this by inactivating an enzyme necessary for the cross linking of bacterial cell walls. The enzyme is known as transpeptidase. It accepts the penicillin as a substrate into the active site and then makes the enzyme completely inactive and deteriorates the cell wall
Other antibiotics go inside of the bacteria and interfere with the chemical activities that must be taken out to sustain their life
Can prohibit the bacteria from turning glucose into energy

7. Discovery of Penicillin:
The first antibacterial that worked was called dye trypan red and was created by Paul Ehrlich as a cure for sleeping sickness
Sleeping sickness is caused by the bite of a tsetse fly in Africa where it inserts trypanosomes
The cure contained an arsenic compound (salvarsan) which is effective against syphilis
The first ‘sulfa duh’ prontosil was created which is effective against streptococcal bacteria (strep)
 Alexander Fleming left a Petri dish containing one of the culture in the laboratory when he went on a holiday
Mold had developed on the cultures, and he realized that the growth of the bacterium had been stopped
The mold inhibited the growth of bacteria
Called Penicillin

8. Discovery of Penicillin (continued):
Even though Fleming found this, he did not pursue this amazing discovery
Howard Florey and Ernest Chain isolated and purified penicillin after Fleming found it
Tried to use on a police man who had septicaemia
Not enough penicillin because it was only grown in Petri dishes
Police man died, but then penicillin started to be made in bulk

9. Penicillin
Now, penicillin is produced in bulk because it took a very long time to make a supple amount of it from Petri dishes
Grown in large tanks containing corn-steep liquor
Different types of penicillin and antibiotics can be made in laboratories because the structure was determined

10. Penecillin’s structure: (polar)

11. Overuse and Resistance to Penicillins
Penicillinase allows for certain bacteria to be resistant to the penicillin so that they can multiply
Can deactivate penicillin G (the original penicillin)
So chemists have made it so that other penicillins can keep the active part of these bacteria the same, but completely morph their side chain so that they can’t carry out their actions and so that they are more resistant to the penicillinase
Bacteria multiply and mutate too fast, so antibiotics and medicines that are completely effective are hard to come by and are even more resistant breeds
Called ‘super bugs’

12. Overuse and Resistance to Penicillins (continued):
Antibiotics are given to animals in feedstocks so that they are less likely to get certain bacterium that are common there (even healthy ones are given them!!)
The antibiotics are passed through meats and dairy products to humans
Many problems with this:
Too many antibiotics is not good for the body
Increases the development of resistant bacteria in the body
Creates even more ‘super bugs’
Hurts more than in helps!

13. Differences between Penicillins (and Cephalosporins) and Sulfa Drugs
Stop bacteria from growing
However, they do not kill the bacteria
The first antibiotics created
Completely manmade and natural
Have many different effects on the people using them
More common to have problems than in Penicillins
Taken with another drug (erythromycin or trimethropin)
More allergic reactions
Some even life-threatening
Penicillins:
Kill the bacteria by removing the cell wall
Less common to have allergies
But more severe when had
Diarrhea
Rashes
Hives
Anaphylactic shock
Airways swell up to the point of not being able to breathe
Epinephrine must be administered if this happens
Which we just learned is actually adrenaline 

14. Patient Compliance:
Because so many different drugs are being used to treat many infections, the patient must comply
The number of allergies and responses to antibiotics is so high that death could possibly occur
Resistance problems (caused by the feedstocks as previously talked about)

15. Citations:
ornton/how_does_penicillin_work.htm
illness/treatment/medicine/medications/questi on88.htm
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