B6 - preventing and treating disease fact test

Question 1

what is a vaccination

Answer 1

a small quantity of dead or inactive form of pathogen

Question 2

what is herd immunity

Answer 2

when enough people are immune to a certain pathogen to reduce the spread of pathogen

Question 3

what effect does a vaccination have

Answer 3

• vaccination is injected into the body to stimulate the white blood cells to produce specific antibodies
• this means that if the same pathogen re-enters the body, the white blood cells respond quickly to produce the correct antibodies, preventing the person from becoming ill

Question 4

what happens after secondary exposure

Answer 4

• increase in antibodies begins sooner
• increase in antibodies is faster
• more antibodies are produced
• antibodies re longer lasting

Question 5

what are antibiotics

Answer 5

medicines that help cure bacterial disease by killing infectious bacteria inside the body
note that specific bacteria should be treated by specific antibodies

Question 6

why can’t antibiotics treat viral diseases

Answer 6

viruses replicate inside of cells and antibiotics can’t get to them without damaging tissues

Question 7

how can bacteria become antibiotic resistant

Answer 7

• one bacterial pathogen mutates to become antibiotic resistant
• this is not killed by antibiotics.
• they survive and reproduce so population rises
• spreads because people aren’t immune so there’s no effective treatment

Question 8

what can you do to reduce the rate of development of antibiotic resistant strains

Answer 8

• doctors should not prescribe antibiotics inappropriately, for example treating viral infections or treating non-serious bacterial infections
• patients should have all the antibiotics prescribed to them
• the use of antibiotics on farm animals should be restricted

Question 9

what is the function of digitalis

Answer 9

heart drug

Question 10

where does digitalis originate from

Answer 10

foxglove

Question 11

where does aspirin originate from

Answer 11

willow tree

Question 12

what is the function of aspirin

Answer 12

painkiller

Question 13

what is the function of penicillin

Answer 13

antibiotic

Question 14

where does penicillin originate from

Answer 14

penicillium mould

Question 15

what do new drugs have to be tested for

Answer 15

toxicity, efficacy and dosage

Question 16

what is the process of preclinical testing

Answer 16

• done in a lab using cells, tissue and live animals
• after preclinical testing, clinical trial use healthy volunteers then patients.
• very low doses are given at the start then if the drug is safe, more clinical trials are carried out to find the optimum dose for the drug

Question 17

what is a placebo

Answer 17

a substance that looks like the real drug but doesn’t do anything

Question 18

why are placebos used in clinical trials

Answer 18

to make sure the drug actually works and people don’t just think it does

Question 19

what is a double blind trial

Answer 19

both the doctors and volunteers are unaware of who is receiving the real drug and who is receiving the placebo, this is done to avoid bias.

Question 20

what is a good medicine

Answer 20

effective, safe, stable, easy to take and successfully removed from the body

Question 21

what are monoclonal antibodies

Answer 21

monoclonal antibodies are produced from a single clone of cells. The antibodies are specific to one binding site on one protein antigen so they are able to target a specific chemical or specific cells in the body

Question 22

what is the process of obtaining monoclonal antibodies

Answer 22

1. mouse is injected with a specific antigen, the immune system responds
2. white blood cells called B-lymphocytes produce specific antibodies to that antigen
3. tumour cells are able to divide easily but can’t make antibodies
4. B-lymphocytes are fused with tumour cells as B-lymphocytes take a long time to divide and it’s hard to arrange the right conditions
5. these cells are called hybridoma cells and can make specific antibodies. they are screened to make sure they are producing the correct antibody.
6. the hybridoma cells are cloned to get lots of identical cells. these cells now produce the same antibody.
7. these antibodies are called monoclonal antibodies because they came from a single cloned cell
8. antibodies are then harvested and purified, used for a range of different purposes

Question 23

what are the uses of monoclonal antibodies

Answer 23

• diagnosis
• treat cancer
• measure hormone levels
• can have fluorescent dye attached to them to detect specific molecules on a cell or tissue sample

Question 24

why aren’t monoclonal antibodies used as widely

Answer 24

they cause more side effects than originally expected