Antibiotics kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria. They work by targeting essential structures or processes in bacterial cells that are necessary for their survival and reproduction. These targets include:
- The bacterial cell wall or membrane, which antibiotics can destroy or disrupt, causing the bacteria to die.
- The machinery that produces nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), interfering with bacterial replication.
- The ribosomes and associated proteins involved in bacterial protein synthesis, stopping bacteria from growing or multiplying.
Depending on their action, antibiotics can be bactericidal (killing bacteria) or bacteriostatic (stopping bacteria from multiplying, allowing the immune system to clear the infection)
. Antibiotics are effective only against bacteria, not viruses or fungi, because viruses lack the bacterial structures and processes that antibiotics target
