A new class of pathogen appears, causing pneumonia. It appears to be some sort of budding yeastlike organism with chitin in the cell wall, but the nucleus is not membrane bound and the protein synthetic equipment appears to be procaryotic. Which of the following antimicrobial agents is most likely to be effective?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Metronidazole (choice A) is not likely to work, as the agent is causing pneumonia, so it is probably aerobic or a facultative anaerobe. If the cell wall does not include peptidoglycan, $\beta$-lactam drugs (choices B and C) are likely to be ineffective. However, since the ribosomes are procaryotic, doxycycline has the best chance as long as it can penetrate the pathogen's cell wall and cytoplasmic membrane.

A New Class of Pathogen Appears, Causing Pneumonia