Which of the following is a characteristic of antibiotics?

Antibiotics are specifically designed to combat bacterial infections by inhibiting the growth of bacteria or killing them outright. This characteristic enables antibiotics to help manage and treat infections caused by bacteria, making them a critical tool in modern medicine. Antibiotics target specific features of bacterial cells, such as cell wall synthesis, protein synthesis, and DNA replication, effectively disrupting the normal processes that allow bacteria to thrive and multiply. This targeted action is what makes them effective against bacterial pathogens without directly affecting viruses or the body’s own cells.

The other options refer to actions that are not associated with antibiotics. For example, promoting viral replication or increasing bacterial growth contradicts the purpose of antibiotics, which is to fight against these types of pathogens. Similarly, stimulating disease-causing microbes does not align with the therapeutic intent of antibiotics, as their role is to inhibit or eliminate such microbes rather than promote them.