Assessment Brief

Antibiotics have made it possible for humans to fight infectious disease. When considering how antibiotics control bacterial pathogens we find that the mechanism is the prevention of some necessary physiological process of the bacterium. For example, streptomycin prevents the formation of protein within the bacterium. So preventing the bacteria from translating and building crucially important proteins will kill bacteria. This provides the means by which the pathogens are controlled once the human body is infected. What I pose to you is that humans are made up of cells and these cells require that we build proteins. Why don’t these same antibiotics harm our cells and damage us when we take them to control disease? If an antibiotic inhibits a ribosome from functioning in the translation of a protein in a bacterium why won’t that same drug inhibit our ribosome? Build a discussion by providing possible reasons why certain antibiotics can control bacteria without doing any serious damage to humans.t