Key Takeaways

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Antimicrobial drugs can be against bacteria, fungi, protozoans, helminths, and viruses. • Prokaryotic organisms are easier to act against because of differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. • Antibacterial agents can act on the cell wall, cell membrane, nucleic acid synthesis, protein synthesis, and cell metabolism. • Antiprotozoal drugs are mainly those against malaria, although there are other protozoal infections that can be treated. • Antifungal drugs are often topical, although there are oral drugs that affect the fungal cell wall or fungal metabolism. • Antiviral drugs will include nucleoside analogs as well as drugs preventing viral release and specific drugs for retroviruses that contain RNA instead of DNA. • There are ways to determine if an antimicrobial drug is inhibitory or bactericidal to a specific organism. This is called looking for drug sensitivity.