Why are antibacterial antibiotics such as penicillin and ampicillin completely ineffective against viral infections like influenza, measles, and common colds?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. viruses lack cell walls, ribosomes, and independent metabolic pathways targeted by antibiotics
- Step 1: Antibiotics target bacterial-specific structures (peptidoglycan cell wall synthesis, 70S bacterial ribosomes, bacterial enzymes). Step 2. Viruses are non-cellular entities that replicate inside host cells using host cellular machinery and lack cell walls or ribosomes. Answer: viruses lack cell walls, ribosomes, and independent metabolic pathways targeted by antibiotics. Why not the others: Viruses have protein capsids, not peptidoglycan; capsids don't metabolize drugs; mammalian membranes don't require light.
Practise more Human Anatomy, Health, Diseases and Applied Science.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed NECO Senior School Certificate Examination mock tests.
More Human Anatomy, Health, Diseases and Applied Science questions
- Which blood vessel transports freshly oxygenated blood directly from the lungs into the left atrium of the human heart?
- What is the structural and functional microscopic filtration unit of the human kidney?
- Which endocrine gland secretes the hormone insulin to stimulate cellular glucose uptake and lower elevated blood sugar levels?
- Which part of the human central nervous system coordinates voluntary muscular movement, posture, and motor balance?
- What causative protozoan parasite is responsible for transmitting malignant tertian malaria in tropical Africa?
- Which insect vector transmits the flagellate protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African trypanosomiasis (sleeping…