In: Biology
10. Define and differentiate between chemotherapeutic agent, antimicrobial chemotherapy, and antibiotics. What is selective toxicity and why is this important for an antimicrobial agent to be useful?
Answere :
Chemotherapeutical agents are chemical substances used within the body for therapeutic purpose. The term generally implies a chemical that has been synthesized or produced by modification of pre-existing chemical. Whereas an antibiotic is a product of the metabolism of a microorganism.
Although many antiobiotic are currently produced by synthetic or semisynthetic means and more correctly a chemotherapic agent.
Antimicrobial chemotherapy is a clinical application in which antimicrobial agents are used for the treatment of disease. Antimicrobial agents or antimicrobials are chemothreupatic agents with selective toxicity to the pathogen, these substance must be harmful to microbial parasite but not to host cells.
Selective toxicity : Antimicrobial agent are very selective in posing toxicity i.e. they must kill or inhibit the pathogenic microorganism without having harmful effect or having least harm to the host. This is called selective toxicity.