Question

which antibiotic target could have the most toxicity associated with it?

a. 50 S ribosomal unit b. cell wall c. cell membrane

Answer 1

The answer is 50S ribosomal subunit.

Targeting the protein machinery or the translational regulatory components of the bacteria also serves as an efficient antibiotic target. The 70S ribosome of bacteria or other prokaryotes consists of two subunits namely 50S and 30S subunits. Targetting any of these two sub particles will stop or hinder the protein synthesizing machinery of the bacteria and therefore the bacterial cells will eventually die .

The cell wall of the bacteria as the antibiotic target serves as the most deleterious or toxic effect associated with it. The reason behind targeting the cell wall rather than the cell membrane lies behind the chemical composition of both the biological structures , the former is composed of pepdidoglycan while the latter is made of lipid bilayer. If an antibiotic is to be used for the treatment of the disease , the most important property it should posses is to be harmless to the human cells , as human cells lacks the peptidoglycan cell wall, introduction of a substance which dissolves the peptidoglycan will kill the bacterial cell but the human cell will remain intact.