Antimicrobial Drug Action

Antimicrobial drugs can be compared to laser guided missiles. They are designed to seek and destroy a very specific target. These drugs destroy bacteria in different ways depending on what biological process they inhibit within the bacteria. Some drugs inhibit the synthesis of the cell walls of bacteria. Because bacteria contain a substance called peptidoglycan, drugs that interfere with cell wall synthesis do not affect the host cells. Penicillin might be the most well known inhibitor of cell wall synthesis. Antimicrobial drugs can also target the ribosomes in bacteria because they differ greatly from ribosomes of eukaryotic cells. Drugs can interfere with protein synthesis by affecting the ribosome. Some drugs are polypeptides that affect the permeability of the cell membrane which causes the loss of metabolites. Sulfa drugs competitively inhibit the synthesis of folic acid which is a vitamin synthesized by bacteria but not humans. Alconox, Binder, and Biohit make products used in laboratories where antimicrobial drugs are used and researched.