why do antbiotics work on bacteria but not on human cells?

Answer 1

Some antibiotics do have effects on human cells, but these are only used in dire circumstances. The most common antibiotics don't effect human cells because they target parts of the bacterial cell not found in higher cells, i.e. the cell wall. Other antibiotics target the bacterial ribosomes which differ slightly from human ribosomes. If an antibiotic does effect human cells it is unlikely they will reach their targets within a human cell because the average human cell is huge compared to a bacteria so the antibiotic will be broken down by the cell before it effects the cell.

Answer 2

An antibiotic is a selective poison. It has been chosen so that it will kill the desired bacteria, but not the cells in your body. Each different type of antibiotic affects different bacteria in different ways. For example, an antibiotic might inhibit a bacterium's ability to turn glucose into energy, or its ability to construct its cell wall. When this happens, the bacterium dies instead of reproducing. At the same time, the antibiotic acts only on the bacterium's cell-wall-building mechanism, not on a normal cell's.

Answer 3

Antibiotics do not affect the body's cells because it's very selective. For instance, one type of antibiotics target bacteria cell walls and cell-wall-building mechanism and disables them. When this happens, the cell dies because it lacks the structural support of eukayotes (we have a cytoskeleton consisting of microfilaments instead of a cell wall). Another type inhibits the bacteria's ability to turn glucose into energy. Without energy, the cell dies. This is easy because prokaryote glucose metabolism is different from eukaryotes'. If you recall, prokayotes have no mitochondria for ETC.

Answer 4

Because antibiotics originated from fungi that made them specifically as an adaptation to bacterial infection. These fungi live on the surface of other cells, such as human skin, plants etc, If antibiotics killed these cells they would be destroying their habitat before they had a chance to reproduce.
Also, there are substances which are produced by fungi which are toxic to both human cells and bacteria, we just don't use them as antibiotics.

Answer 5

Trusted Online Mall : http://store3.w3org.pw/nesr6