Why do antibiotics harm only the bacterial cell and not the host’s cells?
Posted on September 05th, 2008 in Answers
Sarah asked:
Why do antibiotics harm only the bacterial cell and not the host’s cells?
Why do antibiotics harm only the bacterial cell and not the host’s cells?
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September 8th, 2008
they target biochemical mechanisms which bacterial cells do not share with the host. E.g. bacterial ribosomes are different from human ones. Or for example humans do not need to synthesize a bacterial cell wall. They are perfectly happy without. A lot of bacteria are perfectly unhappy without one. So interfering with bacterial cell wall construction makes a good bacteriospecific antibiotic.
check here for a quick overview:
September 9th, 2008
That is because antibiotics act on bacterial structures that are distinctively different from host’s cells and unique to prokaryotes. For examples, penicillin inhibits the formation of peptidoglycan cross-links in the bacterial cell wall. Peptidoglycan is only found in bacteria but not human cells.
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