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Explain how antibiotics are able to target the bacteria cells but not the heathy cells within your body

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User Sllopis
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Antibiotics target specific proteins in a bacterial cell - and these are not the same structure as their mammalian counterpart.
As an example, penicillin targets a growing peptidoglycan chain. Human cells don’t have this so it’s very bacteria specific.
Another antibiotic streptomycin targets the 16S rRNA subunit in the bacterial ribosome - there is no 16S rRNA in humans.
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User Znarf
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