Antibiotics & Disease
- An antibiotic is a chemical drug that can kill or inhibit the growth and reproduction of bacteria
- They are made naturally by certain fungi or bacteria and work by targeting the processes of bacterial cells, either by disrupting their structure or function or by preventing them from reproducing.
- Penicillin was the first antibiotic, discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming
- He noticed that some bacteria he had left in a Petri dish had been killed by the naturally occurring Penicillium fungal mould
- The penicillium mould produces a chemical to prevent it from being infected by certain types of bacteria
- Different antibiotics are effective against different types of bacteria but not against viruses
- Antibiotics target processes and structures that are specific to bacterial cells; as such they do not generally harm animal cells
- Naturally synthesised antibiotics can be produced on a large scale in industrial fermenters
- These antibiotics are often then modified to make them more effective - these are semi-synthetic antibiotic
- Scientists are also able to make entirely synthetic antibiotics in a lab environment
How antibiotics work diagram
How antibiotics work on bacterial cells