Penicillin is an antibiotic which stops bacteria from reproducing. It was used a lot in the past to treat bacterial infection in humans and other animals. In many hospitals there are now strains of penicillin resistant bacteria.
Please help its a 5 marker question need good explanation!
Please help its a 5 marker question need good explanation!
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Antibiotics work by killing enough bacteria so that the body can kill the remaining bacteria. After all, the body can do a better job than any antibiotic, but it has to be given a chance and not be overwhelmed.
So if 80% of the bacteria are killed by the antibiotic, and another 15% by the T-cells in the body, that gives 5% that survived. Since bacteria generate new generations quickly, a small percentage of those survivors will pass along their resistance to the next generation.
Penicillin resistance works by breaking the lactam ring of the penicillin, rendering it ineffective. Bacteria exploit that in their resistance. So the more effective the bacteria is in opening the lactam ring, the better chance it will survive. And those strains of the bacteria that survive by opening the lactam ring pass along that resistance to the next generation. And that generation develops even better approaches to cleaving the lactam ring.
So how does that happen? One is by prescribing the antibiotic inappropriately, or by not taking the antibiotic long enough. Lets say you are told to take it for 10 days, but by day 5 you feel fine. You stop, but there are still bacteria active, but not enough to make you sick. But those bacteria pass along their resistance to the next generation, and you can spread that bacteria to other persons.
Now this didn't suddenly happen in just one generation. It took decades, but for bacteria, decades is many many thousands of generations in which to try and find the best way to defeat the antibiotic. Each try has a success and failure, and the successes are passed along to the next generation.
So if 80% of the bacteria are killed by the antibiotic, and another 15% by the T-cells in the body, that gives 5% that survived. Since bacteria generate new generations quickly, a small percentage of those survivors will pass along their resistance to the next generation.
Penicillin resistance works by breaking the lactam ring of the penicillin, rendering it ineffective. Bacteria exploit that in their resistance. So the more effective the bacteria is in opening the lactam ring, the better chance it will survive. And those strains of the bacteria that survive by opening the lactam ring pass along that resistance to the next generation. And that generation develops even better approaches to cleaving the lactam ring.
So how does that happen? One is by prescribing the antibiotic inappropriately, or by not taking the antibiotic long enough. Lets say you are told to take it for 10 days, but by day 5 you feel fine. You stop, but there are still bacteria active, but not enough to make you sick. But those bacteria pass along their resistance to the next generation, and you can spread that bacteria to other persons.
Now this didn't suddenly happen in just one generation. It took decades, but for bacteria, decades is many many thousands of generations in which to try and find the best way to defeat the antibiotic. Each try has a success and failure, and the successes are passed along to the next generation.
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I'll start you off in the right direction.
good luck!
:)
good luck!
:)