Drugs And Development Flashcards
What are the ethical problems with monoclonal antibody production and drug testing?
Healthy volunteers have to volunteer to have potential side effects of drugs
Animals have to be kept in a lab and tested on (side effects of fatality’s)
What are the stages that drugs go through when in testing?
Human Cells or tissues are produced in a lab that the drug is tested on
Animal testing begins
Human stage 1:healthy volunteers Participate in a blind or double blind trial to test the drug is
Human stage 2: patients wi5 the disease trying to be treated ed with the drug and closely monitored(animal testing continues)
Human stage 3: animal testing and human stage 1 and 2 continue whilst results are sent to become checked by other scientists and licensed.
How are monoclonal antibodies produced?
A mouse is immunized by injection of an antigen X to stimulate the production of
Antibodies targeted against X.
The antibody forming cells (b lymphocytes) are isolated from the mouse’s body
These cells are fused to myeloma (tumour) cells grown in culture. The resulting cell
is called a hybridoma
Each hybridoma produces relatively large quantities of identical antibody molecules. By
allowing the hybridoma to multiply in culture, it is possible to produce a population of
cells, each of which produces identical antibody molecules.
These antibodies are called Monoclonal antibodies because they are produced by the identical offspring of a single, cloned antibody producing cell.
Once a monoclonal antibody is made, it can be used as a specific probe to track down and
purify the specific protein that induced its formation
What is a blind trial?
Groups of volunteers are split and some are given a real drug to try and some placebos but they don’t know which they have
What is a double blind trial?
A group of volunteers are given a placebo or real drug and neither them nor the doctor know who had what. This is to reduce bias in the test.
What is a placebo?
A fake drug that looks exactly like the real thing but does nothing.
This is usually made from sugar
What is a drug?
A substance that changes chemical reactions in the body
What are the 3 facts that are important to gain from drug testing?
The drugs efficacy (how well it works)
The drugs dosage (how much should be given to be effective but give no side effects)
The drugs toxicity (how harmful it is to the body and any side effects)
What is in vitro screening?
The testing of a new drug on lab produced cells and tissues are
How does penicillin work?
Kill is bacteria by weakening cell walls in an environment
What is the area around an antibiotic where bacteria will not grow?
Area of inhibition
What are some uses of monoclonal antibodies?
Pregnancy tests
Identifying plant diseases
Cancer treatments
Tuberculosis testing in cattle
What are monoclonal antibodies?
Monoclonal antibodies are antibodies produced from a single
group of genetically identical B-cells. Therefore they are all identical
in structure.
