Penumonia+Sp14

=**Pneumonia!**=

Disease: Pneumonia, more specifically streptococcus pneumonia. Drug: Amoxicillin
 * DISEASE/DRUG OF INTEREST: **

**MOTIVATION AND BACKGROUND:** The most common infection is the bacterial infection, streptococcus pneumoniae, which accounts to about 50 percent of the pneumonia infections. Streptococcus pneumoniae, also known as strep, is coccus shaped, and has a diameter that ranges from .5 to 1.25 micrometers. Strep is commonly found in the upper respiratory tract, and mostly everyone is carrying it. Unless it is found in high concentrations, Strep is completely harmless, and affects mostly children between five and fifteen. Everyone is susceptible to it but if a infant under the age of 2 or an adult over the age of 65 becomes infected, they are at a substantially higher risk of dying. The common symptoms are high fevers, breathing problems, chest pains and/or feeling worse after having the flu. If it is left untreated it can lead to death. Washing your hands and staying away from people with the disease can easily prevent streptococcus pneumonia, but once you are infected, most doctors treat it with amoxicillin. The reason I would like to study this drug is because it is a very contagious disease, and I would like to understand what makes it so that it is so easily contagious.

Streptococcus pneumoniae attaches to eukaryotic cells, more specifica lly the humans cells by the use of choline binding proteins. The bacteria contains hundreds of these proteins that covalently and noncovalently attach to the cell membrane. It is difficult for the antibodies in the human body to get rid of it because it is encapsulated by polysaccharides that allow it to escape phagocytosis. The bacteria can replicate itself every 20-30 minutes, and since it is in our body most of the time, once our immune system weakens, they start duplicating. They have a genetic ability that allows them to divide into 2 subclasses, one that stays in the respiratory tract and one that goes to the blood. Strep does not affect the body if is in low concentration, that is why it waits until the immune system weakens, then it can have a greater impact and less resistance and ampicillin is needed to help the body fight against it.
 * TARGET INFORMATION: **

The medicine that most people would take when they are diagnosed with strep is ampicillin, or more specifically amoxicillin. This medicine can be taken orally or injected. Amoxicillin attaches to the ampicillin binding protein and activates it, thus causing peptidoglycan production, which is used to reinforce the cell wall. The bacterium ends up splitting due to having a weak cell wall and dies. The drug was invented in 1972 as a variant of penicillin. It causes a lot of side effects, such as having a numbing feeling, rashes, yellowing of skin and/or white patches in your lips due to the fact that Amoxicillin targets a wide variety of bacteria and kills them. There have been several trails done with this drug, and for different symptoms and bacteria, therefore the results are not clear. The latest medical trials show that less than 1 percent of the patients suffer any side effects form this drug. Shown below is the chemical structure of amoxicillin. The chemical formula is C16H19N3O5S•3H2O and its molecular weight is 419 grams per mole. The CAS identification number is 26787-78-0. The drug is patented and the pharmaceutical name is Amoxil.
 * DRUG INFORMATION: **

Figure 1 The chemical structure of amoxicillin, an analog of penicillin that is used to treat Strep.

Figure 2 The basic structure of the bacteria Streptococcus Pneumonia with the choline binding proteins sticking out from the the bacteria.

Figure 3 Inflammation caused by Strep on the human body. It is one of the effects that Strep will cause in the respiratory tract.

**EXTERNAL LINK:** http://www.rxlist.com/amoxicillin-drug/side-effects-interactions.htm

MedlinePlus. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000639.htm (Accessed February 2014). RxList The Internet Drug Index. http://www.rxlist.com/amoxicillin-drug/side-effects-interactions.htm (Accessed February 2014). **.** Streptococcus Pneumoniae. http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Streptococcus_pneumoniae:_Meningitis (Accessed February 2014).
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