sulfonamide drugs

• • Kill bacteria by interfering with their metabolic pathway for folate production (an essential vitamin due to its role in DNA and RNA synthesis)
• • Animals are unable to make their own folate and must acquire it from food, and are unaffected by sulfonamides
• • Bacteria make folate via a specific metabolic pathway
• • Sulfonamides inhibit folate synthesis, so bacterial cells are unable to make folate and die