Antibiotics + Drug development

• What are antibiotics 


  • Medicines that helps cure bacterial disease by destroying bacteria inside body
• How do antibiotics work

  • Inhibits processes in bacterial cells but not in host organism
• Give an example of how antibiotics work

  • Inhibits building of bacterial cell walls
  • Prevents bacteria from dividing + eventually kills them
  • Doesn't affect human host as it doesn't have cell walls
• What is lysis

  Cell bursts
• Why are a range of antibiotics created

  different bacteria causes different diseases + important that specific types of bacteria should be treated by specific antibiotics
• what can antibiotics only treat + why

  bacterial infections as viruses don't have cell walls + difficult to develop drugs that destroy the virus without damaging body cells
• What are the 3 stages of developing drugs

  • Drug discovery
  • Preclinical trials
  • Clinical trials
• What are all new drugs tests for

  • Toxicity -> testing for side effects
  • Efficacy -> does it work properly
  • Dose -> how much to take to maximise benefits but minimise side effects
• Describe the first process of drug development

  • Preclinical testing 1 -> first tested on human cells + tissues to see if it has the desired effect
  • Preclinical test 2 -> testing on live animals to see if drug is effective + see how toxic it is
• Describe the second process of drug development

  • Clinical trial 1 -> low doses given to healthy people (test for toxicity)
  • Clinical trial 2 -> tested on small number of patients (for efficacy + find optimum dose)
  • Clinical test 3 -> tested on large number of patients using placebo in double blind trials
• What is a placebo + why is it used

  A fake drug + doesn't contain anything that will make patient feel better -> to make sure patient isn't gaslighting themselves
• What are double blind trials

  Neither doctor or patient knows who has the placebo or drug to prevent bias + ensure valid results
• What is the final step of drug development

  • Drug licensed -> can be now prescribed by doctors