infection and response

Question 1

what is a monoclonal antibody?

Answer 1

multiple clones of a single white blood cell

Question 2

what do we need to form a hybridoma?

Answer 2

b-lymphocytes from a mouse and tumour cells from a lab

Question 3

in pregnancy tests, what is formed in the reaction zone when HCG is present?

Answer 3

HCG-antibody-dye complex

Question 4

what happens if a woman who isn’t pregnant takes a pregnancy test?

Answer 4

the pregnancy strip will not turn blue, because there will be no hormone (HCG) to bind the blue beads to the fixed monoclonal antibodies in the test line

Question 5

how can monoclonal antibodies be used to treat diseases?

Answer 5

by producing monoclonal antibodies which can bind to specific cells or antigens in the body. -> could inject a mouse with a specific antigen so they produce b-lymphocytes which produce white blood cells and antibodies specific to that antigen.

Question 6

what is an advantage of monoclonal antibodies?

Answer 6

they can target specific cells, without affecting normal body cells

Question 7

how can monoclonal antibodies be used to detect the presence of molecules?

Answer 7

produce MAbs specific to the molecule, bind the MAbs to a fluorescent dye, put them on a slide, the molecule will bind to the fluorescent monoclonal antibodies, and show up under UV with the fluorescent dye