Infection and Response Flashcards

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1
Q

What are pathogens?

A

Microorganisms that enter the body and cause disease.

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2
Q

What are the 4 types of pathogens

A

Bacteria
Viruses
Protists
Fungi

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3
Q

What are bacteria and what do they do?

A

Very small cells that can reproduce rapidly in the body generate toxins to damage host cells and therefore cause symptoms of disease.

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4
Q

What are viruses and what do they do?

A

Microorganisms which infiltrate the host cells and uses the host’s cells machinery to replicate and therefore infect and spread across the host’s body.

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5
Q

Compare the size of the virus with the size of the bacterial cell?

A

Viruses are about 1/100 of a bacterial cell.

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6
Q

What are protists and what do they do?

A

Unicellular Eukaryotes that may act as parasites.

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7
Q

How do protists cause disease?

A

Live on or inside the host to cause disease.

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8
Q

How are protists transmitted into the body of the host?

A

Protists are often transmitted via the use of vectors e.g. insects

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9
Q

What are fungi and what do they do?

A

Unicellular or multicellular organisms (hyphae) that can cause disease.

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10
Q

What is a hyphae?

A

Filamentous structure on the body of the fungus.

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11
Q

How do hyphae cause disease?

A

Hyphae can grow and penetrate the surface of human skin and plants, transmitting material to cause disease.
Hyphae can also produce spores which can be spread to other plants and animals.

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12
Q

What are the different ways pathogens can be spread?

A

> Water droplet
Air
Direct contact

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13
Q

What are some examples of viral diseases?

A

> Measles
HIV
Tobbaco Mosaic Virus

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14
Q

How are measles spread?

A

Via air droplets (sneezing, coughing)

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15
Q

What symptoms do patients with measles present?

A

Red rash, fever,

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16
Q

Why can measles be fatal?

A

Measles can be fatal if it spreads to other regions of the body e.g. lungs (causes pneumonia), brain (encephalitis).

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17
Q

How can measles be prevented?

A

Vaccination

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18
Q

When does measles vaccination take place

A

During early childhood

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19
Q

How is HIV spread?

A

> Sexual contact
Exchange of bodily fluids
Sharing dirty needles

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20
Q

How do patients with HIV clinically present?

A

Initially in the first 2 weeks, patients present with flu like symptoms, however these symptoms disappear.
Roughly 2-5 years later, the patient starts to become infected much more frequently. This is because during the 2-5 years, the immune system is weakened by the virus itself (HIV causes immune cells to burst, thereby destroying it).

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21
Q

How can HIV be prevented/controlled?

A

> Antiretroviral drugs - stops the viral cell from replicating within the body,
Protective wear during sexual activity e.g. condoms
Usage of clean needles

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22
Q

What does Tobbaco Mosaic Virus cause?

A

Causes a mosaic pattern on the leaves of plants, rendering parts of the plants discoloured.

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23
Q

What is the effect of TMV?

A

TMV causes discolouration which leads to a decline in photosynthetic activity, rendering the plant stunted of growth.

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24
Q

What is an example of a fungal disease?

A

Rose Black Spot

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25
Q

How do plants with rose black spot present?

A

Purple/Black spots on rose leaves, which turn yellow and fall off.

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26
Q

What is the effect of rose black spot fungus on the photosynthetic activity of the rose plant?

A

> Reduces the rate of photosynthesis, stunting the growth of the plant.

27
Q

How is the Rose Black Spot fungus spread?

A

Spread through the environment via water or wind.

28
Q

How can Rose Black Spots be prevented?

A

> Usage of fungicides
Stripping the affected plant leaves and isolating it from the healthy leaves. The affected leaves needs to become destroyed to prevent cross contamination of healthy leaves.

29
Q

What is an example of a protist disease?

A

Malaria

30
Q

How does one obtain Malaria?

A

The mosquito containing the protist inserts the protists within the blood cells of the host.

31
Q

How do patients with Malaria clinically present?

A

Patients tend to developed repeated bouts of fever.

32
Q

How can we prevent the spread of malaria?

A

Stop the breeding of mosquitos

Via the use of insecticides and mosquito nets.

33
Q

What are examples of bacterial diseases?

A

> Salmonella

> Gonorrhea

34
Q

What does salmonella cause?

A

Salmonella causes food poisoning

35
Q

How do patients with salmonella clinically present?

A

> Fever
Stomach cramps
Vomitting
Diarrhoea

36
Q

What causes the symptoms seen in patients with salmonella?

A

The toxins produced by the bacteria damages the lining of the intestines to cause such symptoms.

37
Q

How can one treat salmonella?

A

Through the vaccination of poultry

38
Q

What symptoms do patients with gonorrhoea clinically present?

A

Pain during urination

Yellow-green discharge

39
Q

Why is gonorrhoea becoming an increasing issue?

A

Because the strains of bacteria have become resistant to current antibiotic treatment.

40
Q

How does one prevent the spread of gonorrhoea?

A

Through barrier methods (condoms) and penicillin.

41
Q

What are the 4 ways in which diseases can be reduced and prevented?

A

> Sufficient hygiene habits e.g. washing hands properly after visit to the toilet
Vaccination - e.g. during childhood or when travelling to another country
Destruction of vectors - only applies to protozoa - via the use of insecticides e.g. killing of mosquitos to prevent the spread of malaria
Isolation of infected individuals (quarantines) e.g. Ebola

42
Q

What are the physical barriers?

A

Skin - barrier, also secrets antimicrobial resistance
Hairs and mucus - trap particles that could contain pathogens
Trachea and Bronchi - secrete mucus to trap pathogens
Cilia cells - wafting of the mucus up the back of the throat
Hydrochloric acid - kills pathogens

43
Q

What is the function of the white blood cell?

A

They patrol to find pathogens and eliminate them.

44
Q

How do they attack and kill pathogens?

A

> They engulf the foreign material
Bacteria cell has antigens, the white blood cell produces antibodies to kill them
Production of antitoxins - counteract toxins given off by bacteria

45
Q

What is vaccination?

A

It is a means of strengthening the immune system via injecting a small amount of dead or inactive pathogens?

46
Q

How does vaccination work?

A

> The dead/inactive pathogens carry antigens causing your body to produce antibodies to attack them, even though the pathogen is harmless.
If live pathogens appear, the white blood cell can produce antibodies and kill them.

47
Q

What are the pros of vaccinations?

A

> They have helped control may communicable diseases that were very common eg. polio, smallpox and MMR.
Epidemics can be prevented via herd immunity.

48
Q

What are the cons of vaccinations?

A

> They don’t always work, sometimes they may not give you immunity.
Sometimes people may have a bad reaction to them e.g swelling or more serious such as fever or seizures. These are very rare.

49
Q

What is herd immunity?

A

The vaccination given to a population against an outbreak of a specific disease when a very high percentage of the population have been vaccinated against it.

50
Q

What are the two types of drugs used to fight disease?

A

Painkillers such as aspirin

Antibiotics such as penicillin

51
Q

What is the function of painkillers?

A

Drugs that alleviate pain via reducing symptoms

52
Q

What is the function of antibiotics?

A

> They kill or stop the growth of pathogens inside the body, without damaging body cells.
They cannot kill viruses as they use body cells to reproduce, meaning drugs that target them would affect body tissue too

53
Q

What affect has antibiotics caused?

A

The use has greatly reduced number of deaths as a result of communicable diseases caused via bacteria

54
Q

What are the growing issues with bacteria?

A

Bacteria mutates and evolves becoming resistant to an antibiotic.

55
Q

How does bacteria become resistant to antibiotics?

A

Bacteria becomes resistant when exposed to antibiotic and the non resistant strains die.
The resistant bacteria survive and reproduce, increasing resistant bacteria meaning that antibiotics that were previously effective no longer work.

56
Q

How can we prevent the development of resistant strains?

A

Avoid over-prescribing antibiotics - unnecessary exposure to antibiotics for bacteria
Finishing courses of antibiotics to kill all of the bacteria

57
Q

Where do some chemicals used in drugs come from?

A

Extracted from plants

58
Q

Examples of antibiotics and their chemicals from plants?

A

Aspirin, painkiller, developed by chemical found in willow

Digitalis, treating heart problems, developed by chemicals found in foxgloves

59
Q

How was penicillin made?

A

Fleming cleared out dished counting bacteria and noticed some had mould and area around it didn’t have any. He found the mould was producing a substance that killed the bacteria - it later became known as penicillin.

60
Q

Outline the three stages of drug testing?

A

> Preclinical testing on human cells and tissues
Preclinical testing of drug on live animals
Clinical trial

61
Q

What happens in the first stage of drug testing?

A

In preclinical testing, drugs are tested on human cells and tissues.

62
Q

What happens in the second stage of drug testing?

A

Preclinical testing, testing the drug on a live animal.

This tests efficacy (work+produces desired effect) ,toxicity and the best dosage.

63
Q

What happens in the third stage of drug testing?

A

> If drug passes testing on animals then its tested on volunteers in a clinical trial.
Firstly, its tested on healthy volunteers to make sure there aren’t any side effects in which a very low dose is given and this is gradually increase
If results are positive, drug can be tested on individuals with the illness in which the optimum dose is found (which is most effective and has the least side effects).
Patients are placed into two groups one taking the drug or the placebo in order to see a difference.
Results of drug testing and trials aren’t processed until they have been through peer review