Antibiotics

• Do antibiotics work against viruses?

  No
• How do antibiotics kill bacteria?

  By interfering with their metabolic reactions. They target the bacterial enzymes and ribosomes used in these reactions
• How do antibiotics not damage human cells?


  • bacterial enzymes and ribosomes are different from human enzymes and ribosomes
  • antibiotics designs to only target the bacterial ones so they don't damage human cells
• Why do antibiotics not work against viruses?

  • Viruses do not have their own ribosomes and enzymes (they use the ones in host cells)
  • Because viruses use human enzymes and ribosomes to replicate, antibiotics cannot inhibit them because they do not target human processes
• What are most antiviral drugs designed to target?

  The few virus-specific enzymes (enzymes that only the virus uses) that exist
• What do reverse-transcriptase inhibitors do?


  • HIV uses reverse-transcriptase to replicate
  • Human cells DO NOT use this enzyme
  • So drugs can be used to inhibit it without affecting the host cell