What do drugs that inhibit nucleic acid synthesis primarily do?

Drugs that inhibit nucleic acid synthesis primarily function to impede the synthesis of nucleotides or halt transcription. This action is crucial for interfering with the replication of DNA and RNA within cells, which is essential for cellular division and function. By blocking nucleotide synthesis, these drugs prevent the building blocks necessary for nucleic acid formation from being produced. Transcription is also disrupted, which stops the process of synthesizing RNA from a DNA template. Both of these mechanisms effectively limit the ability of cells, especially rapidly dividing ones such as bacteria or cancer cells, to grow and reproduce.

Targeting nucleic acid synthesis is a common strategy in developing antibacterial and antiviral medications because it selectively affects microorganisms or cancerous cells’ ability to replicate their genetic material, while generally sparing healthy human cells, which can be more resilient or rely on different pathways for nucleic acid synthesis.