Question 9
Making anti-viral drugs is more difficult than making anti-bacterial medicines because
(a) viruses make use of the host machinery
(b) viruses are on the border line of living and non-living
(c) viruses have very few biochemical mechanisms of their own
(d) viruses have a protein coat
(c) viruses have very few biochemical mechanisms of their own
Making anti-viral drugs is more difficult than making anti-bacterial because viruses have very few biochemical mechanisms of their own.
Virus are considered to be in the twilight zone. They are neither living nor non-living. Besides that, viruses do not have any metabolism. This results in tracing and following of the metabolic trail by the antibiotics.
Hence, anti-bacterial drugs have been developed to tackle bacterial infections, but anti-viral drugs are yet to be manufactured for the same reason as they do not leave any metabolic trail.