Antimicrobial Drugs (Microbiology)

Recall cards on antimicrobial drugs. The history of chemotherapy and antimicrobial discovery: Ehrlich's Salvarsan, prontosil, Fleming's penicillin, Florey and Chain, Waksman, and the actinomycetes. The fundamentals of antimicrobial chemotherapy: bacteriostatic versus bactericidal drugs, narrow versus broad spectrum, superinfections, half-lives, dose- versus time-dependent killing, and synergy. Mechanisms of antibacterial drugs by target: cell wall synthesis (beta-lactams, vancomycin, bacitracin), protein synthesis (aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, macrolides, lincosamides, chloramphenicol, oxazolidinones), nucleic acid synthesis (rifampin, fluoroquinolones), metabolic pathways (sulfonamides, trimethoprim, isoniazid), and the cell membrane (polymyxins, daptomycin). Mechanisms of antifungal, antiprotozoan, anthelmintic, and antiviral drugs. Drug resistance mechanisms and the major resistant pathogens (MRSA, VRSA, VRE, ESBLs, CRE, MDR-TB, XDR-TB). Testing effectiveness: the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion test, MIC, MBC, and the Etest. And current strategies for antimicrobial discovery, including high-throughput screening, the iChip, and teixobactin.