1)Define antibiotic. Today "antibiotic" refers to drugs that kill which type of organism—bacteria, fungi, or viruses?

 

20 Describe the "magic bullet" that Dr. Paul Ehrlich sought to find. How did Dr. Ehrlich define "chemotherapy?"  How is the term chemotherapy typically used today

 

3)a) Is Streptomyces the name of a genus of fungi or bacteria?  Name three antibiotics derived from Streptomyces.

b) Which general type of organism does amphotericin B kill? (fungi or bacteria?)  

c) Which general type of organism do erythromycin, gentamycin, and neomycin kill? (fungi or bacteria?; answer for each) 

 

4)Vancomycin and amoxicillin inhibit penicillinase. What is penicillinase? Why is this ability to inhibit penicillinase useful?

1. Antibiotics are drugs or any substance that can inhibit the growth of the bacteria by inhibiting their replication or kill the bacteria directly. Antibiotics only target bacteria and is not effective in viral or fungal infection. 

2. The "magic bullet" is a scientific concept that Dr. Paul Ehrlich created in the 1900. According to him, these "magic bullets" can specifically target the microbes in the body without harming the body itself. He later found out that these "magic bullets" are actually antibodies, which are produce in body when there are invading pathogens and fight off the pathogen without harming the body. 

According to Dr. Ehrlich, chemotherapy is killing the microbes by learning how to aim it chemically or killing it with the use of chemicals. He used to study different chemicals that will target the microbes. Nowadays, chemotherapy is used to treat cancer patients with the use of chemotherapeutic agents which will destroy the malignant cells in the body. 

3. 

a) Streptomyces is a genus of gram-positive bacteria that have filamentous shapes similar to fungi. They are important because they produce antibiotics that are clinically useful. Three antibiotics derived from streptomyces are streptomycin, actinomycetes and neomycin. 

b) Amphotericin B is used as a treatment to life-threatening fungal infection.   

c) Erythromycin is an antibiotic agent against bacteria. Similarly, gentamycin is also used to kill bacteria. Lastly, Neomycin is also used to treat bacteria. 

4. Penicillase is an enzyme that is produced by some bacteria that would inactivate the antimicrobial property of penicillin. Inhibiting penicillinase is useful because it would inhibit the bacterial degradation of beta-lactam antibiotics and thus extend the use of antibiotics against the bacteria. When penicillinase in inhibited, it would not be able to inhibit the effects of penicillin making the antimicrobial properties of penicillin effective in inhibiting replication of the bacteria.