How Do Antibiotics Affect Bacterial Protein Synthesis Research Paper Example

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How Do Antibiotics affect Bacterial Protein Synthesis
Antibiotics are medicines that inhibit the growth of microorganisms. Many clinically useful antibiotics exert their antimicrobial influence by blocking protein synthesis on the bacterial ribosome. The ribosome is nature’s most ancient enzyme, carrying out the essential function of manufacture of new proteins in all living cells. Ribosomes in many organisms are alike in structure. The ribosomes have a complex system made of interdependent components that require a particular arrangement to function. Loss of function could result from disruption of the arrangement of component parts (Poehlsgaard & Douthwaite, 2005).
Ribosome targeting antibiotics lodge between crucial components of the ribosome, disrupting the manner in which they operate and thereby interfering with the synthesis of new proteins. Many antibiotics target the ‘rRNA rich surfaces of the 30S and 50S sub units’ of ribosomes (Poehlsgaard & Douthwaite, 2005). These antibiotics target the hydrolysis of the protein cells, the formation of peptide bonds and the chanelling of the peptide through the sub unit of the ribosome (Poehlsgaard & Douthwaite, 2005).
Antibiotics prevent proteins from being assembled by the cell and induce the assembly of the wrong amino acids into the translated protein. Without proteins, which are necessary for normal cell function, the cell dies (Chriswell, 2004).
Human ribosomes are slightly different from bacterial ribosomes. Therefore, antibiotics can be designed to target the binding arrangements of bacterial ribosomes, inhibiting their growth and ultimately killing them. In this manner, antibiotics are successful in killing bacterial ribosomes and not attacking the human ribosomes. Thus, antibiotics inhibit the growth of disease causing bacterial proteins, ultimately resulting in arresting the disease caused by the respective bacteria (Poehlsgaard & Douthwaite, 2005).

References

Chriswell, D. (2004). The evolution of antibiotic resistance. Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.icr.org/i/pdf/imp/imp-378.pdf
Poehlsgaard, J., & Douthwaite, S. (2005). The bacterial ribosome as a target for antibiotics. Nature Reviews/Microbiology 3: 870-881. Retrieved March 27, 2015, from EBSCOHost.