B6 Flashcards
How do vaccines work?
A dead or inactive form of the pathogen is inserted into the bloodstream to stimulate the white blood cells to have an immune response and produce antibodies and antitoxins. If the same pathogen appears in the body again, there will be a faster and bigger immune response.
What is herd immunity?
Herd immunity is the idea that if enough people are immune to a specific antigen then the spread of the pathogen is reduced.
What is an antibiotic?
Antibiotics, such as penicillin, are medicines that cure bacterial disease by killing bacteria. It’s important that specific bacteria are killed by specific antibiotics.
How have antibiotics been used in the past?
Antibiotics have been used overtime to save many lives yet their overuse for simple conditions lead to resistant strains forming.
Why can antibiotics not kill viruses?
Viruses enter cells to reproduce inside of them and so antibiotics can’t be used as they can’t reach the viruses without damaging the tissues.
How are new resistant strains of bacteria formed?
Bacteria reproduce rapidly and so can mutate more often which can lead to resistant strains of bacteria being formed. Resistant strains then survive and reproduce leading to more of the resistant strain increasing.
How can doctors reduce the amount of resistant bacterial strains formed?
Doctors shouldn’t prescribe antibiotics inappropriately for non serious or viral infections.
They need to make sure patients complete their antibiotic course so no bacteria are left and able to form resistant strains.
The agricultural use of antibiotics should be restricted.
What is digitalis?
Digitalis is a drug that treats heart disease and originates from foxgloves.
What is aspirin?
Aspirin is a painkiller that originates from willow tree bark.
What is penicillin?
Penicillin is an antibiotic that originates from penicillin mould discovered by Alexander fleming
What are drugs tested for?
Drugs are tested for:
Efficacy - if it produces the intended result.
Dosage - how much of the drug you should take.
Toxicity - How safe the drug is/ the side effects.
What is preclinical testing?
Preclinical is testing done in a laboratory on tissues, cells and animals before the drug is tested on humans.
What are clinical trials?
Clinical trials are tests that use live, healthy humans. They are gave increasingly big amounts of the drug until the drug is considered safe enough to use on ill patients where they find the optimum dosage.
What is a blind trial?
A blind trial is where the volunteers don’t know whether they are taking the drug or if they are taking a placebo - a substance that looks like the drug but isn’t actually the drug.
What is a double blind trial?
A double blind trial is when neither the doctors nor the patients know which is the placebo or the actual drug to prevent bias from the doctors.
What are monoclonal antibodies?
Monoclonal antibodies are antibodies to a specific antibody that can be produced from a single clone of cells.
How are monoclonal antibodies produced?
Injecting a specific antigen into a mouse to stimulate the release of a specific antibody from a mouse B Lymphocyte. This is then combined with a specific tumour to form a hybridoma. This hybridoma cell can divide and make the specific antibody. This single hybridoma can be cloned and then the antibodies produced by these hybridomas can be collected and purified.
What are some uses of monoclonal antibodies?
Monoclonal antibodies are used: in diagnosing tests, to treat cancer,to measure hormone levels and to detect and locate specific molecules.
How can monoclonal antibodies be used for diagnosis?
Monoclonal antibodies can be used to target a specific substance e.g in pregnancy tests monoclonal antibodies target a hormone found in pregnant women’s urine.
How can monoclonal antibodies be used to treat cancer?
Monoclonal antibodies can treat cancer by being attached to a toxic substance or chemical to destroy the tumour cells at the same rate they reproduce.
How can monoclonal antibodies measure the levels of hormones and chemicals in blood?
Monoclonal antibodies can do this by binding to the specific hormone or chemical you want to measure and then change colour to show the levels.
Why are monoclonal antibodies not used in many places?
They have more side effects then scientists expected so aren’t used often.
