Question

Making anti-viral drugs is more difficult than making anti-bacterial medicines because

Options

• viruses make use of host machinery

• viruses are on the borderline of living and non-living

• viruses have very few biochemical mechanisms of their own

• viruses have a protein coat

Answer 1

viruses have very few biochemical mechanisms of their own

Explanation:

 It is more difficult to make antiviral medicines than anti-bacterial drugs. One reason is that viruses have few biochemical mechanisms of their own. They enter the host’s cells and use the host’s cell machinery for their life processes. This implies that there are relatively few virus-specific targets to aim at.