____________ are not affected by antibiotics.

____________ are not affected by antibiotics.

• A. Viruses
• B. Bacteria
• C. Fungi
• D. Prions

Answer: (A)

Antibiotics are made to interfere with processes that bacteria have, such as building their cell walls, making essential proteins with bacterial ribosomes, or carrying out specific bacterial enzymes. Viruses don’t have those features: they’re just genetic material inside a protein coat and they reproduce by hijacking a host cell’s machinery. Because antibiotics don’t target anything viral, they don’t stop viruses from multiplying. That’s why antiviral therapies, not antibiotics, are used for viral infections. For context, other options fit their own categories—fungi are targeted by antifungals, bacteria by antibiotics, and prions are abnormal proteins that aren’t affected by standard antibiotics either—but the reason viruses stand out here is that their replication isn’t dependent on the bacterial structures antibiotics attack.

Antibiotics are made to interfere with processes that bacteria have, such as building their cell walls, making essential proteins with bacterial ribosomes, or carrying out specific bacterial enzymes. Viruses don’t have those features: they’re just genetic material inside a protein coat and they reproduce by hijacking a host cell’s machinery. Because antibiotics don’t target anything viral, they don’t stop viruses from multiplying. That’s why antiviral therapies, not antibiotics, are used for viral infections. For context, other options fit their own categories—fungi are targeted by antifungals, bacteria by antibiotics, and prions are abnormal proteins that aren’t affected by standard antibiotics either—but the reason viruses stand out here is that their replication isn’t dependent on the bacterial structures antibiotics attack.