Question

QUESTION 3 During antibiotic therapy, it is important to maintain a minimum inhibitory concentration of the antibiotic for an extended period of time to kill the bacteria. The Vo VS [S] plots below are of a B-lactamase from a bacterial pathogen that is sensitive to the antibiotic cefotaxime and a B-lactamase from a bacterial strain that has become resistant to cefotaxime treatment. Evaluate their activities, relative to Vmax at cefotaxime concentrations expected at the beginning (200 M) and after 8 hours (2 uM) of an oral dose of antibiotic. Assume Vmax is 100 umol min-1 for both enzymes in this assay. Beginning (200 uM) End (2 mm) wild-type B-lactamase mutated B-lactamase Mutated V. (umol-min) Wild-type 0 20 40 60 80 100 160 180 200 220 240 120 140 [S] (UM)

Any explanation is helpful

Answer 1

The graph explains about $\beta$ - lactamase activity of a bacteria. The wild type bacteria is sensitive to antibiotic cefotaxime and the mutated type is resistance. The minimum inhibitory concentration is the minimum concentration required to kill the bacteria.

From the graph, for the wild type 200 $\mu$ M the enzyme activity is 50 $\mu$ M min^-1 and for mutated is 95 $\mu$ M min^-1 . At the end 2 $\mu$ M the activity for both the strain is almost zero.