Anti-Infectives: Details and Description
ANTI-INFECTIVES
Anti-infective agents are drugs that are designed to act selectively on foreign organisms that have invaded and infected the body of a human host. Ideally, these drugs would be toxic to the infecting organisms only and would have no effect on the host (or human) cells.
OVERVIEW
• Antimicrobial therapy (often termed “antibiotic therapy”) is the use of medications to treat infections caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
• Antimicrobial must use selective toxicity to kill or otherwise control microbes without destroying host cells. As a result, individual groups of Antiinfectives tend to have unique characteristics (to be discussed on next page). In addition, their respective methods of actions may include (to be discussed thoroughly on page 3): o Destroying the cell wall, which are present in bacteria but not found in mammals. o Preventing viral replication through reduction of enzymes needed by the virus to reproduce.
• New antimicrobials must be continually created due to changes in DNA of microorganisms, called conjugation, which produces resistance to multiple existing drugs.
• Super-infection is a type of resistance caused when normal flora are killed by use of an antibiotic, thus favoring the emergence of a new infection that is difficult to eliminate.
• Selection of antimicrobial medications is based on FOUR MAJOR multiple factors (to be discussed later).
Several major examples of Anti-infectives includes,
anti-bacterials (or antibiotics)- able to slow down growth or harm bacteria
anti-fungals (or anti-MYCOTICS)- able to slow down or harm fungi,
anti-virals- able to slow down or harm viruses,
BEFORE I CONTINUE, allow me to make one quick clarification:
Parasites are organisms that prey on humans. They tend to be large in size so we refer to such as Protozoa and Helminths (or parasitic worms). Others are small in size and sometimes could be bacteria or viruses.
anti-protozoals- able to slow down or
Anti-infective agents are drugs that are designed to act selectively on foreign organisms that have invaded and infected the body of a human host. Ideally, these drugs would be toxic to the infecting organisms only and would have no effect on the host (or human) cells.
OVERVIEW
• Antimicrobial therapy (often termed “antibiotic therapy”) is the use of medications to treat infections caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
• Antimicrobial must use selective toxicity to kill or otherwise control microbes without destroying host cells. As a result, individual groups of Antiinfectives tend to have unique characteristics (to be discussed on next page). In addition, their respective methods of actions may include (to be discussed thoroughly on page 3): o Destroying the cell wall, which are present in bacteria but not found in mammals. o Preventing viral replication through reduction of enzymes needed by the virus to reproduce.
• New antimicrobials must be continually created due to changes in DNA of microorganisms, called conjugation, which produces resistance to multiple existing drugs.
• Super-infection is a type of resistance caused when normal flora are killed by use of an antibiotic, thus favoring the emergence of a new infection that is difficult to eliminate.
• Selection of antimicrobial medications is based on FOUR MAJOR multiple factors (to be discussed later).
Several major examples of Anti-infectives includes,
anti-bacterials (or antibiotics)- able to slow down growth or harm bacteria
anti-fungals (or anti-MYCOTICS)- able to slow down or harm fungi,
anti-virals- able to slow down or harm viruses,
BEFORE I CONTINUE, allow me to make one quick clarification:
Parasites are organisms that prey on humans. They tend to be large in size so we refer to such as Protozoa and Helminths (or parasitic worms). Others are small in size and sometimes could be bacteria or viruses.
anti-protozoals- able to slow down or