Chapter 6 - Preventing and Treating Disease Flashcards
What is an antigen?
A protein on the surface of a cell.
What is an antibody?
- Cells that deactivate or destroy pathogens inside the body.
How does a vaccination work?
- Dead/inactive forms of a pathogen enter the body, stimulating the body to produce white blood cells. The next time the same pathogen enters the body, WBC will produce antibodies quicker.
Give an example of 1 viral and 1 bacterial disease you can be vaccined against.
- Tetanus, Diphtheria (Bacterial)
- Measles, Mumps (Viral)
What is the purpose of painkillers?
- To supress pain from a disease.
Explain the main difference between paracetamol and penicillin.
- Paracetamol only supresses any pain caused by the disease
- Penicillin kills the bacteria causing the disease.
What is an antiseptic mainly used for in real life?
- Cleaning cuts and wounds on the skin.
What are antibodies used for in real life?
- Killing bacteria causing a disease.
All new drugs are tested for efficacy, toxicity and dosage. Define these three terms.
Efficacy - If the drug can treat the disease
Toxicity - Any present side effects.
Dosage - Concentration of the drug
What 3 things should a good medicine be?
- Effective: Should prevent or cure a disease
- Safe: Drug must not have too many side effects
- Stable: Ability to use and store the drug comfortably
Describe the process of developing drugs (6)
- During pre-clinical trials, drugs are tested on cells and animals to ensure safety and toxicity of the drug. (1)
- Phase 1 clinical trials include young, healthy volunteers that the drug is tested on to check for any side effects. (1)
- Phase 2 includes testing the drug on current patients to check whether the drug can treat the disease.(1)
- Phase 3 includes testing the drug on a large number of people. (1)
- Double Blind Trials are when neither the patient or the doctor knows if they have received a fake or real drug. (1)
- The fake drug is called a placebo (1)
- This prevents any biased results from the phase 3 trails, to make sure the drug is good to go (1)
What is a monoclonal antibody?
- A clone of a cell which can bind onto specific proteins, so they can target specific cells in the body.
What are monoclonal antibodies produced by?
- Stimulating mouse lymphocytes to make a specific antibody.
How do hybridoma cells contribute to the production of monoclonal antibodies?
- They divide to produce a large number of identical cells, all producing the same antibodies.
How are monoclonal antibodies used in the treatment of diseases?
- They have been developed against antigens on cancer cells.
Why did people think that monoclonal antibodies could be used in treatments of disease such as cancer?
- Monoclonal antibodies would only target a specific type of cell/chemical. (1)
In phase 1 testing, only healthy volunteers are used
Suggest one reason for this.
- To ensure that any side effects of the drug will be clearly shown from the healthy patient.
State what a placebo drug is.
- A drug that looks identical but doesn’t contain the active ingredient.
Explain why are antibiotics not used to treat viruses.
- Viruses reproduce in the cell. This means that the antibiotics cannot destroy the viruses without damaging other cells.
Describe how a pregnancy test works in terms of monoclonal antibodies (6)
- Urine contains hCG molecules (1)
- The HCG binds to antibodies with blue dye attached (1)
- The antibodies move down the test strip to the result window (1)
- hCG specific anitbodies bind to the result window, which turns blue (1)
- Remaining antibodies from the result window bind to immobilised antibodies specific to the mobile antibodies in the control zone (1)
- If both the control and result window are coloured, the test is positive. if only one is coloured, the test is negative.
