That is an amazing question! Antibiotics are kind of classified as either bacteriostatic or bactericidal based on their effective dosages and the way they affect the bacteria they target. Without writing you an essay, bactericidal means that the antibiotic will kill the bacteria on its own through any number of mechanisms. Bacteriostatic, however, will halt the growth of the bacteria for a certain amount of time through any number of mechanisms without actively killing the bacteria. This allows macrophages, or other immune cells, to attack the bacteria without the bacteria growing and overwhelming the immune cells. Both ways are effective and depending on dosages, antibiotics can be bactericidal if their concentrations are high enough and usually they will be bacteriostatic if their concentrations are low.
That is a great question. Our compound, terpinen-4-ol, had never been used in previous drug discovery labs here at CU, so we didn’t have access to previous research on dosages, or data that we could rely on. Therefore, I would say the most challenging part was trying to find a proper concentration where terpinen-4-ol would be effective while also not displaying as a poison since it was so effective. Even at the end of the semester we still don’t have an exact threshold, which could be partly due to our negative control.
That is an excellent question. Unfortunately we did not look at the specific mechanisms during this semester. However, previous research suggests that tea tree oil may target the plasma membrane and cell wall and disrupt the influx and efflux of ions through them. If you’re interested, I can email you our references which go more in depth. My email is kiana.roberts@colorado.edu, feel free to email me.
Hi, Kiana, I really enjoyed your presentation! Would a bactericidal result have been more favorable the bacteriostatic?
than bacteriostatic**
That is an amazing question! Antibiotics are kind of classified as either bacteriostatic or bactericidal based on their effective dosages and the way they affect the bacteria they target. Without writing you an essay, bactericidal means that the antibiotic will kill the bacteria on its own through any number of mechanisms. Bacteriostatic, however, will halt the growth of the bacteria for a certain amount of time through any number of mechanisms without actively killing the bacteria. This allows macrophages, or other immune cells, to attack the bacteria without the bacteria growing and overwhelming the immune cells. Both ways are effective and depending on dosages, antibiotics can be bactericidal if their concentrations are high enough and usually they will be bacteriostatic if their concentrations are low.
What was the most challenging part of your semester-long experiment?
That is a great question. Our compound, terpinen-4-ol, had never been used in previous drug discovery labs here at CU, so we didn’t have access to previous research on dosages, or data that we could rely on. Therefore, I would say the most challenging part was trying to find a proper concentration where terpinen-4-ol would be effective while also not displaying as a poison since it was so effective. Even at the end of the semester we still don’t have an exact threshold, which could be partly due to our negative control.
what specifically targets the membrane to not be able to replicate?
That is an excellent question. Unfortunately we did not look at the specific mechanisms during this semester. However, previous research suggests that tea tree oil may target the plasma membrane and cell wall and disrupt the influx and efflux of ions through them. If you’re interested, I can email you our references which go more in depth. My email is kiana.roberts@colorado.edu, feel free to email me.