Answer
- Steps that lead to antibiotic resistance from bacteria
Antibiotics save lives but their use can contribute to the development of resistant germs. Antibiotic resistance is accelerated when the presence of antibiotics pressure bacteria to adapt.
Antibiotics and antifungals kill some germs that cause infections, but they also kill helpful germs that protect our body from infection. The antibiotic-resistant germs survive and multiply. These surviving germs have resistance traits in their DNA that can spread to other germs.
Step 1: Germs restrict access by changing the entryways or limiting the number of entryways.
Step 2: Germs get rid of antibiotics using pumps in their cell walls to remove antibiotic drugs that enter the cell.
Step 3: Germs change or destroy the antibiotics with enzymes, proteins that break down the drug.
Step 4: Many antibiotic drugs are designed to single out and destroy specific parts (or targets) of a bacterium. Germs change the antibiotic’s target so the drug can no longer fit and do its job.
Step 5: Germs develop new cell processes that avoid using the antibiotic’s target. This is how pneumonia bacteria resistance to antibiotics occurs.