Antimicrobial Treatment

2. Viruses that target bacteria very specifically and can be used as an alternative to antibiotics for treating bacterial infections
6. Bacteriophage enzymes that lose and kill bacteria, which can be purified and administered without the whole virus structure
9. An adaptive response in which microorganisms begin to tolerate an amount of drug that would normally be inhibitory
12. Groupings of bacteria that behave differently than free-living bacteria and are often unaffected by antimicrobials due to protective structure
13. The communication process between microbes in a biofilm that can be targeted to dissolve the biofilm structure
14. Substances produced by natural metabolic
15. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, an antibiotic-resistant strain commonly found in healthcare environments

1. The smallest concentration of drug that inhibits bacterial growth, determined by tube dilution tests
3. The ratio of the dose of a drug that is toxic to humans compared to its minimum effective dose, indicating safety margin
4. Highly penetrating radiation including gamma rays and x-rays used as an alternative sterilization method for heat-sensitive materials
5. Antimicrobials effective against a wide variety of microbial types, such as both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria
7. An enzyme produced by some bacteria that targets and breaks down the ring structure of penicillin, causing antibiotic resistance
8. The area surrounding an antibiotic disc where bacterial growth is prevented, measured as a diameter to determine drug effectiveness
10. A quantitative drug susceptibility test where antimicrobial is serially diluted in broth tubes to determine minimum inhibitory concentration
11. The ability of a drug to target and destroy infectious agents without harming host cells