In: Biology
7. The following is an article about a young man who died of plague in 2015. Based on the information provided, you can correctly determine that this very unfortunate death was due to ______.
DENVER (AP/CBS4) – When a Larimer County teen came down with a high fever and muscle aches, his family thought he had the flu. But he was dead within days and the rare cause was only revealed later. Taylor Gaes had been infected with the plague, likely by fleas that put the bacteria directly into his blood stream, making it difficult to spot in time to stop its spread. The 16-year-old died June 8, but the cause was only made public late Friday when health officials, at the urging of the boy’s parents, put out a warning to make sure others who may have visited his family’s rural home near Fort Collins hadn’t been sickened by the fleas that could have infected him.
a. bubonic plague
b. primary pneumonic plague
c. septicemic plague
d. secondary pneumonic plague
8. Which of the following is/are beta-lactam drugs? (Choose all correct answers.)
sulfa drugs
penicillins
cephalosporins
bacitracin
aminoglycosides
vancomycin
11. Which, if any, of the following is NOT true of methicillin?
a. methicillin inhibits PBP2a (penicillin-binding protein 2A)
b. methicillin resembles D-Ala-D-Ala
c. methicillin prevents cross-linking in the peptidogly
d. can All of the above are true of methicillin.
The right answer is ‘b’. primary pneumonic plague, caused by direct exposure/inhalation of body fluids from the infected animals like rats, cats or other pet animals. because visitors not infected by fleas, fleas bite usually causes bubonic plague found out by bubos, bulging of lymph nodes, followed by septicemic plague (blood full of yersinia pestis), followed by secondary pneumonic plague because septicemic blood enters lungs
8. Penicillin and cephalosporins are beta-lactam drugs having a -C-C-C=O – N- ring structure, interfere/disturb gram +ve bacterial cell wall synthesis
11. Answer ‘a’ is not true rest of the answers are true. methicillin cannot inhibits PBP2a (penicillin-binding protein 2A). All beta-lactam antibiotics including methicillin inhibit Pencillin Binding Proteins, activity of PBPs is essential for bacterial survival, they are desirable targets of antibiotics, specifically by ?-lactams. In gram +ve bacteria there exist four native PBPs: PBP1, PBP2, PBP3, and PBP4. Whereas, PBP2a is a unique transpeptidase enzyme that is acquired by methicillin resistant bacteria that is not inhibited well by ?-lactam antibiotics. Hence, it is able to continue peptidoglycan crosslinking, when other PBPs with transpeptidase activity are inhibited.