In: Biology
1. Name 6 mechanisms of actions of antimicrobial drugs.
Anti microbial drugs are core of our fight for infection free world. When we synthesize or choose an antimicrobial drug then we take extra care of the fact that the drug should not target any process of the patient or host but it should selectively disrupt metabolic process of microbe or pathogen only. Antimicrobial drugs include antibiotics, antifungal, antivirals as well as antiparasitic drugs.
Following are different mechanisms-
Antibiotics
Disruption of peptidoglycan synthesis- All beta lactam class of antibiotics disrupt peptidoglycan synthesis and therefore arrest bacterial cell wall formation. Bacteria dies by lysis
Disruption of prokaryotic protein synthesis- Antibiotics such as tetracyclines are effective as protein synthesis blocker of bacteria (prokaryotes). Tetracyclin binds on 30 S subunit of ribosome ( mainly on 16s RNA) and checks the binding of aminoacyl t RNA. Therefore, protein synthesis is blocked.
Antivirals-
Reverse transcriptase inhibitors- Many drugs like zidovudine block reverse transcriptase enzyme of retroviruses. They act like thymidine analogue and target the viral reverse transcriptase.
Inhibition of proteases- Several antiviral drugs like Amprenavir and Daraunavir specifically target and deactivate the viral proteases and thereby prevent cleavage of viral precursor proteins.
Antifungal
Inhibition of chitin synthesis- Different antifungal compounds like Polyoxins block the chitin synthesis which is an important component of fungal cell wall. It is an inhibitor of chitin synthetase and blocks glucosamine incorporation during chitin synthesis,
Antiparasitic
Hyperpolarization of cellular channels- Several drugs like ivermectin cause hyperpolarization by activating specific channels of invertebrate parasites by triggering huge influx of chloride ions.. This hyperpolarization causes muscle paralysis and death. The drug is used extensively in treating different parasitic infestations like filarial worm etc.