Explain why an antimicrobial substance would be more effective on bacteria and not on viruses?

Expert Solution

Ans : First of all, bacteria and virus are entirely different. Bacteria are small single cell organisms. They have a metabolism, a cell membrane, a lot of active enzymes, DNA etc. Virus on the other hand, neither have cell body nor protein machinery of their own. They just replicate and reproduce inside host cell. They have only those machineries that are required to penetrate a host, inject or release a RNA/DNA. Hence virus cannot be classified as a living organism. A virus uses the host machinery to produce its proteins for it and reproduce on its own and it cannot survive like a bacteria.

When we use antimicrobial substance like antibiotics, they reach our organs and tissues of the body and get distributed. Bacteria will pick this antibiotic from tissue like they pick other nutrition from the tissues.This antibiotic either will destroy their cell wall or protein machinery and kills it. Virus do not have such mechanism of picking up antibiotics. Therefore antibiotic has no target to attack in a virus. So they are not affected by antibiotics. Moreover the only way to kill virus is to destroy their DNA/RNA . Antibiotic do not have this capability.

gladiator answered 1 hour ago

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