Question

A 40-year-old man returned from a deer-hunting trip approximately 6 weeks ago and presents to clinic with multiple complaints. He states that recently he has had worsening joint pain and "arthritis" in multiple joints that seem to move to different spots. Patient also complains of some numbness in his feet bilaterally. The patient denies any medical problems and he had a normal annual physical examination prior to hunting trip. Upon further questioning, he remembered having a rash on his body and the lesions were circular and appeared to be resolving in the center. He noted that he felt really bad once he got home with muscle ache (myalgias), joint ache (arthralgias), stiff neck, and severe headache. He also remembered that many of his hunting friends had experienced flea and tick bites and is quite sure he was bitten as well. The physical examination is essentially normal except some joint tenderness of left knee and right shoulder. After making your diagnosis you gave him a prescription of erythromycin.

In paragraph format, using at least 25 words, please answer the following questions;

1) What is the likely diagnosis?

2) What is the biochemical mechanism of action of erythromycin?

Answer 1

Answer: Tick bite causes symptoms that have been mentioned in above case.The symptoms includes joint pain, fever, skin rashes etc. This should be treated as soon as possible. The tick is a kind of insect that sucks the blood if come in contact with the body and carry diseases. It is most common in United States.

The erythromycin is an antibiotic which is used to treat this kind of infection. This drug acts by inhibiting the protein synthesis of bacteria by binding to bacterial ribosomal subunits i.e. 50s. This binding inhibits the peptidyl transferase activity. The translocation of amino acid during translation of protein gets interrupted, hence cause damaged to protein synthesis inibacteria.