Study Guide Questions to Second Half of Micr 201

Chapters 12, 13 and 14

Chapter 12

1. What is chemotherapy?

2. What are antibiotics and where do they come from?

3. What types of infectious microorganisms are treated with antibiotics?

4. What is a semisynthetic antibiotic?

5. What are the properties of a good antimicrobial drug?

6. What is an ideal target for an antimicrobial drug?

7. Why is the cell wall a good target for antibacterial drugs?

8. Why is the cell membrane usually a poor antimicrobial drug target?

9. How do antimicrobial drugs interfere with protein synthesis?

10. Why is DNA synthesis both a good and a bad antimicrobial drug target?

11. What is meant by spectrum of activity of an antibiotic?

12. Which antibiotic was the first one discovered and who discovered it?

13. What are the important chemical structural components of penicillins and cephalosporins? What effects do they have on their properties?

14. How do aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, macrolides, and chloramphenicol function as antibiotics?

15. How do the floroquinolones function as antibiotics?

16. How do the sulfonamides function as antibiotics?

17. Why are Amphotericin B and Clotrimazole inhibitory to fungi and yeast and not human cells?

18. What microorganisms are quinine and metronidazole used against?

19. Why are there so few drugs available to treat viral infections?

20. What are the three main modes of action of antiviral drugs?

21. What is a nucleotide analog?

22. What are the two main genetic ways that bacteria gain resistance to antibiotics?

23. How can mutation lead to antibiotic resistance in bacteria?

24. How can DNA exchange mechanisms lead to antibiotic resistance in bacteria?

25. What are two ways that proteins in the bacterial cell membrane are involved in antibiotic resistance?

26. How does antibiotic inactivation allow bacteria to become resistant to penicillins?

27. What gene is involved in inactivation of penicillin and what is the gene product and what does it do to penicillins?

28. How can the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria be limited?

29. What are the main side effects of some antibiotics on patients?

30. How are the disk diffusion and dilution methods used to determine the sensitivity of a bacterium to an antibiotic?

31. What is meant by the minimum inhibitory concentration of an antibiotic?

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Chapter 13

1. What are symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism and parasitism?

2. What is the normal flora, where is it found, and what good and bad effects can it have on the host?

3. Under what conditions can the normal flora cause problems for the host?

4. What is virulence and what is a virulence factor?

5. What is meant by attenuation of virulence?

6. What is a carrier?

7. What is an opportunist?

8. What are residents and transients?

9. What is a portal of entry and what are the main ones for pathogenic microorganisms?

10. What are the portals of entry for Salmonella spp., Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Neisseria gonorrhoease, Clostridium tetani, Plasmodium spp. and HIV (AIDS virus).

11. What is meant by infectious dose?

12. What are the portals of exit for pathogens?

13. How do bacteria attach themselves to host cells?

14. What are important enzymes used by bacteria to invade host tissues and cells? How does each aid invasion?

15. How do bacterial pathogens harm the host?

16. How can a Streptococcal infection result in damage to the heart and kidneys?

17. What is the difference between endotoxin and exotoxins?

18. What are some important types of exotoxins and what are their effects on host cells and tissues?

19. Where are cholera bacteria found? How does cholera toxin work?

20. Where is Clostridium botulinum found? How does botulinum toxin work?

21. What are the harmful effects of viruses on the host?

22. How do viruses bind to host cells?

23. What is the basis for species and tissue trophism of viruses.

24. What are the harmful effects of fungi on the host?

25. What are two fungal toxins that may be ingested with contaminated food? What are their effects on the host?

26. When referring to infectious diseases, what is meant by acute, chronic, latent, local, focal, and systemic?

27. When referring to infectious diseases, what is meant by septicemia, bacteremia, primary, secondary and superinfection?

28. What is Epidemiology, who is the father of Epidemiology, and what infectious disease epidemic did he study?

29. What agencies are involved with tracking diseases in populations to prevent and control their spread?

30. What are the differences between sporadic, endemic, epidemic and pandemic diseases?

31. What are the meanings of incidence, prevalence, morbidity and mortality of diseases in populations?

32. What is a reservoir for a disease?

33. What are some examples of living and nonliving disease reservoirs?

34, What is a vector, a biological vector and a mechanical vector?

35. What is the difference between a reservoir and a vector? Are there instances where the same organism is both a reservoir and a vector?

36. What is a zoonosis?

37. What is the difference between communicable and non-communicable diseases?

38. What is meant when we say that a person is contagious?

39. Why isn't Lyme disease a communicable disease?

40. What is the difference between horizontal and vertical transmission of a communicable disease?

41. How are vehicles involved in communicable disease transmission? What are some examples of vehicles?

42. What are nosocomial infections and what are the main reasons for their occurrence?

43. Which microorganisms cause most nosocomial infections?

44. What can be done to control the spread of a communicable disease?

45. What is the difference between quarantine and reverse isolation?

46. How do immunization and vector control help prevent diseases?

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Chapter 14

1. What is immunity?

2. What is innate immunity and why is it a general, nonspecific host defense?

3. How is acquired immunity different from innate immunity?

4. What host mechanisms are used as a first line of defense against infection?

5. What host mechanisms are used as a second line of defense against infection and under what circumstance is the second line needed?

6. How does the skin act as a barrier to infection by pathogens?

7. What are defensins?

8. What is lysozyme, where is it found and what does it do?

9. How do mucus membranes act as barriers to infection?

10. What are the barrier defenses of the digestive tract?

11. What are the barrier defenses of the urogenital tract?

12. What are the components that make up blood?

13. Which components of blood are involved in host protection?

14. What is a stem cell and where are stem cells that form blood cells found in the body?

15. Which white blood cells are involved in phagocytosis?

16. What is the difference between a neutrophil, monocyte and a macrophage?

17. What are platelets

18. What are the components that make up the lymphatic system?

19. What are the functions of the lymphatic system?

20. What are the function of the lymph nodes, spleen and thymus in immunity?

21. What is phagocytosis?

22. What is meant by "self" and "nonself"?

23. How does a phagocyte distinguish between a pathogen and a host cell and why does it need this ability?

24. What are the four phases of phagocytosis?

25. How do phagocytes "know" where pathogens are located?

26. How do some bacteria escape detection by phagocytes?

27. What is a phagosome and a lysosome?

28. What enzymes and chemicals are in lysosomes and what is there function?

29. Why does a phagocyte need to keep these components inside lysosomes rather than in the cytoplasm?

30. Why are Mycobacteria able to survive inside phagocytes?

31. How are natural killer cells different from phagocytes?

32. What are cytokines?

33. What are the characteristics of inflammation and what are its functions?

34. When can inflammation be a problem for the host?

35. What is normal body temperature and what is fever?

36. How does fever act as a defense against pathogens?

37. What triggers fever?

38. What is interferon and what are the three types?

39. How do interferons act as defenses against viral infections?

40. What is the complement system made up of?

41. What are the functions of the complement system?

42. What is meant by a "cascade mechanism" for complement activation?

43. What are the two main routes for complement activation?

44. What is a membrane attack complex?

45. How does complement kill bacteria?

46. What types of viruses should be susceptible to inactivation by complement?

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