Drugs to Treat Infections and Cancer

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Chapter 11

• Drugs to Treat Infections and Cancer

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Evil Spirits, Bad Blood, Punishment of the Gods
No, Just a little living creature trying to make
its way in the world!
3
Why Does the Immune System Fail?

• Evolution
• Immune deficiencies
• Genetic diseases
• Drugs
• HIV

4
Types of Infections

• Prions
• Viruses
• Bacteria
• Fungi
• Parasites

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Prevention

• Soaps
• Antiseptics
• Disinfectants
• Physical Methods
• Heat
• Light

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Antibiotics

• Small molecule differences
• Large molecule differences
• Specificity

7
Viral Infections

• Genetic material
• A few proteins
• Species and tissue specific
• Wide range
• Drugs
• Selectivity

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Bacteria

• Complete form of life
• Genetic material circular double stranded DNA
  plus plasmids
• Infections
• Extracellular eg strep, menengitis
• Intracellular eg. tuberculosis, leprosy

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Antibiotics

• Interfere with reproduction until the immune
  system cuts in
• Kill
• Similarities to and difference from human cells

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Sulfonamides

• The first
• Synthetic
• Prontosil
• Liver conversion to sulfonamide
• Prevents reproduction (pABA and folic acid
  synthesis)
• Resistance

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Sulfonamides cont.

• Oral administration
• Free and bound drug
• Kidney toxicity
• Liver toxicity
• Bone marrow suppression
• Allergy

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Warfare Amongst the microbes

• Microbes compete for resources
• Plants protect themselves
• Most antibiotics we find in nature
• Musch of resistance exists in nature

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Penicillin

• Made by a fungus
• Bacterial cell wall
• Fungal infections
• Penicillinase
• Allergy
• derivatives

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Other Antibiotics

• More than 60
• Common Problems
• Liver
• Kidney
• Bone marrow suppression
• Resistance
• gtSome unique Problems, eg Streptomycin

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Fungal Infections

• Bacteria provide some protection competition for
  simple molecules
• Increasing because of immunodeficiency
• Drugs most common interfere with ergasterol
  synthesis
• Kidney/liver toxicity

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Parasitic Infections

• Unique and varied
• Malaria- female mosquito to human
• Sporozoan
• Intracellular parasite (Red Blood Cells)
• Sickle Cell anemia and evolution

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Other Parasites

• Pneumocystis pneumonia
• Lots of worms

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Cancer

• Uncontrolled reproduction of some type of your
  cells
• What causes cancer
• Is it inherited?
• Treating cancer is a big selectivity problem