Infection and Response Flashcards
(29 cards)
What are pathogens and what do they do?
They are microorganisms that cause diseases.
They can be bacteria, fungi, protists or viruses.
What is bacteria and what do they do?
They’re small cells that produce toxins to destroy your cells and tissues.
What are viruses and what do they do?
Viruses are pathogens that live inside your cells and replicate themselves. The cells will burst, releasing the new viruses, damaging your cells.
What is a protist and what do they do?
They’re single celled eukaryotes.
Some protists can be parasites which live on / inside of other organisms and then damaging them.
What is fungi and what does it do?
They’re single celled that have a body made of hyphae, which can grow and damage the skin and the surface of plants, causing diseases.
How can pathogens be spread?
Water Air Direct Contact Unhygienic Food Preparation Vector
What are measles?
A disease spread by droplets from an infected person’s sneeze or cough.
People with it develop a rash and a fever.
A vaccination for measles is given to babies.
What’s HIV?
HIV is a virus spread by sex or exchanging bodily fluids.
It can be controlled with antiretroviral drugs; they stop the virus from replicating.
The virus attacks the immune cells. The immune system becomes damaged and can’t fight off other infections, leading to AIDS.
What is tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)?
It’s a virus affecting plants.
It causes a mosaic pattern (discolouration) on the plant and the plant can longer carry out photosynthesis
What’s rose black spot?
A fungus that causes blue/purple spots on roses’ leaves. The leaves eventually turn yellow and die.
Less photosynthesis can be carried out, stunting its growth.
The fungal diseases spreads by water and air and can be treated with fungicides and taking off the infected leaves and destroying it.
What’s malaria?
It’s a disease caused by protists.
Malaria, the vector, picks up the protists from an infected person and spreads it to another by feeding on them. The protists travel through the blood vessels.
It causes episodes of fevers and be prevented by using insecticides and mosquito nets.
What’s salmonella?
A bacteria causing food poisoning.
The symptoms are fevers, cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea which are caused by the toxins the bacteria produces.
What’s gonorrhoea?
It’s a STI caused by bacteria.
It causes pain while peeing and thick yellow discharge
It could be treated with penicillin but strains of bacteria are becoming resistant to it.
How do you prevent the spread of diseases?
Be hygienic
Destroying Vectors
Isolating Infected Individuals
Vaccination
What are ways your body fight pathogens?
Skin - secretes antimicrobial substances that kill pathogens.
Nose - hair and mucus trap particles containing pathogens.
Trachea and Bronchi - secretes mucus to trap pathogens and the cilia moves the mucus to the back of the throat to be swallowed.
Stomach - produced hydrochloric acid to kill pathogens.
How do white blood cells attack pathogens?
WBC called phagocytes engulf and digest pathogens (phagocytosis).
WBC called lymphocytes can also produce antibodies to bind to the antigen and attack it.
WBC produced antitoxins to counteract toxins produced by the bacteria.
How do vaccinations work?
Injecting a small amount of dead or inactive pathogens. The white blood cells will know there’s pathogens in the body and they’ll produce antibodies for the antigen. The antibodies clump the pathogens together and a phagocyte engulfs and digests it
Now, if the pathogens was to enter your body again, your white blood cells will fight it off quickly and you’re immune.
What are advantages and disadvantages of vaccination?
Advantages:
Help to control communicable diseases.
Control epidemics
Disadvantages:
Doesn’t always work
Can have harmful side effects
What do antibiotics do?
They kill bacteria
Why are some bacteria resistant to antibiotics?
Bacteria can mutate, sometimes causing strains of resistant bacteria. So antibiotics will only kill the non resistant bacteria.
Where did drugs originally come from?
Plants and microorganisms.
What are the three main stages in drug testing?
Pre-clinical trialling:
Drugs are tested on human cells and tissues in the lab
Test for efficacy, toxicity, the dosage on two different live mammals
Clinical trials:
The drug is tested on healthy volunteers to see for side effects and to find the optimum dosage.
Some people have the placebo whilst since have the drug but the patient nor the doctor know who has which. This is to be able to see the differences
How are monoclonal antibodies produced?
They are produced from clones of white blood cells
How are monoclonal antibodies made?
An antigen is injected into a mouse
The mouse produces lymphocytes, which produce antibodies specific to the antigen, forming hybridoma cells which divide indefinitely produce millions of monoclonal antibodies.
