56 - 60 Pharmacology SBAs for the Primary FRCA
Question 56
You are considering which antibiotic to use for your patient with a 'penicillin-gave-me-diarrhoea' allergy.
Which of the following is not a feature of bacteria?
- Ribosomes
- Prokaryote
- Protein envelope
- Cell wall
- Deoxyribonucleic acid
Answer
- Protein envelope
Broadly speaking, infection can be caused by the following groups:
- Viruses
- Bacteria
- Fungi
- Prions
(We're going to do away with scientific rigour and just shove all the weird and wonderful single celled organisms that aren't technically bacteria under the heading of bacteria.)
Some key features of each group include, but are not limited to:
Viruses
- Protein envelope
- DNA or RNA
Bacteria
- Gram + vs Gram -ve
- Aerobic vs anaerobic
- Most community acquired infections are due to gram positive
- Most hospital associated infections are gram negative
- Prokaryotes with DNA in loops
- Cell walls
- Cell membranes
- Ribosomes
Fungi
- Eukaryotes
- Cell membrane made from ergosterol rather than cholesterol, allowing it to be targeted relatively safely
Prions
- Misfolded proteins that can induce bad folding in proteins that they come into contact with
- Yes, technically an infection, despite not being a living organism
- No specific treatment at present
- Terrifying (not an exam answer)