- Information
- AI Chat
Lecture notes – The therapies of effective treatment
Biology (C100)
University of Salford
Recommended for you
Students also viewed
Preview text
Lecture notes – The therapies of effective treatment
A semisynthetic artemisinin derivative used in combination therapies is an effective treatment of malaria and a truly cost-effective treatment. The mechanism of artemisinin action is not well understood; it appears to form reactive oxygen intermediates inside Plasmodium-infected red blood cells, leading to altered hemoglobin catabolism and plasmodium electron transport chain damage.
Diseases caused by protozoa
There are many other diseases caused by protozoa, such as: Amoebic dysentery is usually treated with metronidazole. Anaerobic organisms, such as the causative agent Entamoeba, readily reduce it to the active metabolite within the cytoplasm. A number of antibiotics that inhibit bacterial protein synthesis are also used to treat protozoan infection. These include the aminoglycosides clindamycin and paromomycin.
Types of Diseases caused by protozoaAlthough aminoglycosides do not bind to eukaryotic ribosomes, these polycationic molecules have a high affinity for nucleic acids and RNA in particular. Different aminoglycoside antibiotics bind to different sites on RNAs. RNA binding interferes with the normal expression and function of the RNA, resulting in cell death.
The antifungal atovaquone (p) is used to treat toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii. Toxoplasmosis is a lifethreatening infection in immuno compromised individuals and can cause severe birth defects in human fetuses. Atovaquone interferes with eukaryotic electron transport to kill the protozoan parasite.
Pyrimethamine and dapsone are also used to treat Toxoplasma infections and are thought to act in the same way as trimethoprim-interfering with folic acid synthesis by inhibition of dihydrofolate reductase. Another drug that interferes with electron transport is nitazoxanide, which is used to treat cryptosporidiosis, a food and waterborne disease.
Transplants between genetically different individuals within a species are termed allografts (Greek allos, other). Some transplanted tissues do not stimulate an immune response. For example, a transplanted cornea is rarely rejected because lymphocytes do not circulate into the anterior chamber of the eye. This site is considered an immunologically privileged site. Another example of a privileged tissue is the heart valve, which in fact can be transplanted from a pig to a human without stimulating an immune response. This type of grafts between different species is termed a xenograft.
Transplanting tissue that is not immunologically privileged generates the possibility that the recipient’s cells will recognize the donor’s tissues as foreign. This triggers the recipient’s immune mechanisms, which may destroy the donor tissue. Such a response is called tissue rejection. Tissue rejection can occur by two different mechanisms. First, foreign MHC molecules on transplanted tissue, or the “graft;’ are recognized by host T-helper cells, which aid cytotoxic T cells in graft destruction.
Lecture notes – The therapies of effective treatment
Module: Biology (C100)
University: University of Salford
