Question

Why are chemotherapeutic agents that work on the peptidoglycan cell wall of bacteria a good choice of drug?

a. The drugs also work against DNA gyrase.
b. They are less expensive that other chemotherapeutic agents.
c. Bacteria are especially sensitive to these compounds.
d. Humans and other animal hosts lack peptidoglycan cell walls.

Answer 1

The correct answer is d. Humans and other animal hosts lack peptidoglycan cell walls.

Step-by-step explanation:

Bacterial cell wall is mainly made up of peptidoglycan layer which protects their internal structure of cells from the harsh external environment. Most of the bacteria are pathogenic to humans and chemotherapeutic agents are present in the market that kill them by destroying their cell wall.

Animal and human cells do not have any cell wall outside their cell membrane so these chemotherapeutic agents do not harm human or animal cells and are very selective for bacteria that contain peptidoglycan cell wall.

They can target the peptidoglycan in two ways 1. inhibit the formation of new peptidoglycan like penicillin or 2. By destroying the old peptidoglycan layer like lysozyme.

Therefore the right answer is d. Humans and other animal hosts lack peptidoglycan cell walls.

Answer 2

d. Humans and other animal hosts lack peptidoglycan cell walls.

Step-by-step explanation:

Humans and other animals lack cell walls. Bacterial cells have peptidoglycan cell walls around them. The absence of cell walls in the cells of human and other animal host ensures that these cells are not affected by the drugs that target the peptidoglycan cell walls to kill or slow down the growth of the bacterial pathogen.

This makes the drugs specifically target the bacterial cells only while not affecting the host cells. If a drug would target a component present in cells of both the pathogens and hosts, the host cells would be most likely to be harmed by the drugs.