Vaccines and Antimicrobial Drugs Flashcards
(38 cards)
vaccination
- inoculation of a living host with inactive or attenuated (weakened) pathogens, or pathogen products, to stimulate protective active immunity
- active immunity means that your body is making the antibodies
- passive immunity involves obtaining antibodies from a different organism
vaccine
- the substance given to a host (usually by injection) that induces artificial active immunity
- acts as an antigen, but does not cause disease
- stimulates the production of antibodies
herd immunity
- resistance in a population to a pathogen (disease) as a result of the immunity of a large portion of the population
- breaks the chain of pathogen transmission from one susceptible host to another
- the more highly infectious a pathogen, the greater the proportion of immune individuals needed to prevent disease spread
How do vaccines stimulate active immunity?
- the initial exposure to the antigen from the vaccine causes the primary immune response
- the primary immune response causes a rise in antibody concentration that decreases over time
- when exposed to the antigen a second time, the secondary immune response occurs
- the secondary immune response causes a rise in antibody concentration that is higher and faster
What are the different types of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines being used or in development?
- mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna): mRNA that codes for spike protein is purified and injected, body produces spike protein
- adenovirus vector vaccine (Johnson and Johnson): spike protein gene is purified and put inside an adenoviral vector, body produces spike protein
- protein based: spike protein is purified and injected
- all cause the immune system to produce the antibody against the spike protein antigen
antimicrobial drugs
- compounds used to treat disease by destroying or inhibiting the growth of pathogenic microbes within a host (in vivo)
- synthetics, antibiotics, semi-synthetics
What are synthetics?
chemicals
antibiotics
- naturally produced antimicrobial agents (microbial products)
- produced by bacteria and fungi
semi-synthetics
chemically modified antibiotics
How are antimicrobials classified?
- molecular structure
- mechanism of action
- spectrum of antimicrobial activity
selective toxicity
- ability of a drug to kill or inhibit the pathogen while damaging the host as little as possible
- ex: penicillin goes after peptidoglycan
therapeutic (effective) dose
drug level required for clinical treatment
toxic dose
drug level at which drug becomes too toxic for the patient (produces side effects)
therapeutic index
- ratio of toxic dose to therapeutic dose
- the larger the therapeutic index, the better
narrow spectrum drugs
attack only a few different pathogens
broad spectrum drugs
attack many different pathogens
cidal agent
kills microbes
static agent
inhibits growth of microbes
side effects
undesirable effects of drugs on host cells
growth factor analogs
- structurally similar to an essential growth factor
- disrupt cell metabolism
- ex: isoniazid (narrow spectrum, cidal if actively growing, static if dormant)
quinolones
- interfere with bacterial DNA gyrase
- prevent DNA packaging
- ex: ciprofloxacin (narrow spectrum, cidal)
macrolides
- target the 50S ribosomal subunit
- ex: erythromycin (broad spectrum, static)
- ex: azithromycin (Z-pack) (semisynthetic)
tetracyclines
- target the 30S ribosomal subunit
- ex: tetracycline (broad spectrum, static)
lipid biosynthesis disruptors
- target fatty acid biosynthesis
- ex: platensimycin (broad spectrum, static, effective againt MRSA and VRE)