Question

Design a strategy to treat a MDR-bacteria-infected patient using one of the drugs other than penicillin or its derivatives (other beta-lactams are OK).

a)     What is your drug? (1 point)

b)    What is the basic structure of your drug? (2 points)

c)     What is the cellular target of your drug? (2 points)

d)    What is its relative half-life? (1 point)

e)    What side effects does your drug have (list 2)? (2)

Answer 1

There are huge number of drugs available to treat mdr (multidrug resistant) diseases, one such drug taken for explanation is Levofloxacin

1. Levofloxacin

2.

3.cellular target: DNA gyrase subunit A (bacterial cellular component). This protein helps in negatively supercoil the circular DNA which is essential for any type of the DNA functions such as replication or transcription. Hence targeting this protein becomes vital.

4. Half life of this drug is 6 to 8 hours (both orally and intravenously)

5. Side effects: most common side effects are nausea, headaches, bowel problems like constipation.