Topic 5 Health and the Development of Medicines

Question 1

Health definition

Answer 1

A state of complete physical, eating well, sleeping well, exercising well; mental, what you think of yourself; and social wellbeing, how you interact with others and your surroundings.

Question 2

Disease definition, types, susceptibility

Answer 2

Where a structure or process of an organism does not function properly not due to injury.
Communicable and non-communicable
Having one disease may make you more susceptible to others since your body is weakened by the disease and is less able to fight off others.

Question 3

Communicable disease

Answer 3

Diseases that can be spread between individuals caused by pathogens (protists, viruses, bacteria and fungi).

Question 4

Non-communicable diseases

Answer 4

Cannot be passed on from person to person. Caused by a problem in the body such as a fault in the genes or lifestyle choices or malnutrition.

Question 5

Ebola

Answer 5

Virus
Causes haemorrhagic fever (fever with bleeding)
Spread via bodily fluids
Transmission can be reduced by isolating infected individuals and sterilising any areas where virus may be present

Question 6

Chalara Ash Dieback

Answer 6

Fungus that infects ash trees
Cause leaf loss and bark lesions
Fungus carried through air by wind and can spread when diseased trees are moved between areas.
Transmission can be reduced by removing young, infected ash trees and replanting them with a tree of different species or restricting import and movement of ash trees.

Question 7

Malaria

Answer 7

Caused by protist
Causes damage to red blood cells and to liver (in severe cases).
Mosquitos act as vector to pass on protists to humans without getting the disease themselves.
Mosquito nets and insect repellent can be used to prevent vector mosquitos biting people.

Question 8

Cholera

Answer 8

Bacterial disease
Causes diarrhoea
Spreads via contaminated water sources
Transmission can be reduced by making sure there is access to clean water sources.

Question 9

Tuberculosis

Answer 9

Bacterial disease
Causes coughing and lung damage
Spread through air when people cough
Infected should avoid crowded public spaces, practice good hygiene and sleep alone in well-ventilated homes.

Question 10

Stomach ulcers

Answer 10

Bacterial disease
Causes stomach pain, nausea and vomiting
Spread through oral transmission e.g stalling contaminated water/food
Transmission can be reduced by having clean water supplies and hygienic living conditions

Question 11

STI definition

Answer 11

Sexually transmitted disease

Spread through sexual contact

Question 12

Chlamydia

Answer 12

Bacterium but behaves like a virus as it can only reproduce inside host cells
Does not cause symptoms but can result in infertility in men and women
Spread can be reduced by wearing a condom when having sex and screening individuals so they can be treated/avoid sexual contact.

Question 13

HIV

Answer 13

Human Immunodeficiency Virus that kills white blood cells
Leads to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) - when person’s immune system deteriorates and fails and person becomes very vulnerable to opportunistic infections by other pathogens.

Question 14

Multifactorial disease

Answer 14

Diseases that may have more than 1 risk factor (i.e. many non-communicable diseases).
Examples: Cardiovascular diseases, cancers, lung and liver diseases and diseases influenced by nutrition.

Question 15

Deficiency disease

Answer 15

Disease caused by lack of a certain nutrient.

Question 16

Cardiovascular disease

Answer 16

Result of the circulatory system functioning poorly which can cause heart attacks.

Question 17

BMI and when is someone considered obese and at risk of cardiovascular disease?

Answer 17

BMI is used to see if people are in a healthy weight range to check risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
When BMI is over 30.

Question 18

Why might waist to hip ratio be better than BMI?

Answer 18

It gives a better estimate of abdominal fat than BMI and a better indication of risk for cardiovascular disease.

Question 21

How does alcohol cause liver disease?

Answer 21

Alcohol in drinks is broken down by liver.

Drinking too much can cause liver disease and cirrhosis which can lead to death.

Question 22

Lifestyle changes to prevent cardiovascular disease

Answer 22

Doctors advise patient to stop smoking or take up exercise to reduce blood pressure and reduce risk of cardiovascular disease.
Doesn’t need drugs or surgery (free and lacks danger).
Can be difficult for people to lose weight or give up smoking.

Question 23

Cardiovascular disease cause (obesity)

Answer 23

Lack of exercise or malnutrition caused by high sugar diet leads to obesity.
Obesity causes large amounts of fat forming around organs which can lead to cardiovascular disease.

Question 25

Cardiovascular disease cause (smoking)

Answer 25

Dangerous chemicals from tobacco smoke damage damage blood vessels.
Fat in the blood can build up in the damaged vessel walls and make them narrower. This can cause blood clots which block the vessels.
Causes cardiovascular disease which can lead to heart attacks or strokes.

Question 26

Lifelong medication to prevent cardiovascular disease

Answer 26

Doctors give patient with high blood pressure medicines (e.g. beta-blockers) to reduce blood pressure and risk of heart attacks.
Simple effective treatment with no risk of surgery.
Drugs can have side effects and people can forget to take them.

Question 27

Surgery to prevent cardiovascular disease

Answer 27

People have a stent put in their blood vessels in surgery to widen the vessel. People who have this surgery take medicine for the rest of their lives to prevent heart attacks.
Effective treatment - makes clots much less likely.
Surgeries are dangerous, especially on overweight people.

Question 28

Immune response

Answer 28

A pathogen’s antigens on its surface triggers the immune response.
When lymphocytes come across the pathogen, they produce antibodies that are specific and match the shape of that pathogen’s antigens and won’t lock on to any other pathogen. These antibodies are produced and search for other pathogens of the same type.
These antigens bind to the antigens on the surface of the pathogen and kill the pathogen and marks it to be killed by other white blood cells.
Memory lymphocytes stay in the blood afterwards and makes you immune. You will feel ill until have been killed.

Question 29

Primary response

Answer 29

First time you are exposed to a pathogen (slower and not as many antibodies produced) because it takes time for right lymphocytes that produce the complementary shaped antibodies to be found.
You will feel ill until all pathogens are killed.
Memory lymphocytes also produced that remember a specific antigen that can produce antibodies quickly when needed.

Question 30

Secondary response

Answer 30

2nd time you are exposed to a pathogen (antibodies produced faster and many more produced because of memory lymphocytes that remain in the blood following the primary response).
Pathogens killed so quickly that you don’t feel ill because you are immune.

Question 31

Physical barriers

Answer 31

Skin acts as barrier and blood clots seal cuts.
Hair and mucus trap particles that could contain pathogens.
Cells in trachea and bronchi produce mucus that traps pathogens. Cilia waft mucus up to back of throat to be swallowed.

Question 32

Immunisation cons

Answer 32

Sometimes doesn’t work and give you immunity.

Can sometimes have a bad reaction from a vaccine (e.g. swelling, fever or seizures) that are very rare.

Question 33

What are monoclonal antibodies?

Answer 33

Antibodies that are clones of a particular antibody`

Question 34

Chemical barriers

Answer 34

Stomach produces hydrochloric acid that kills most pathogens swallowed.
Eyes produce lysozyme chemical in tears that kills bacteria on surface of eye.

Question 35

How to prevent spread of STIs

Answer 35

Using a condom when having sex, screening individuals so they can be treated and avoiding sexual contact (Chlamydia).
Avoid sharing needles and using medication to reduce risk of passing virus (HIV).

Question 36

Immunisation

Answer 36

Dead or inactive pathogens are injected into your body that contain antigens that are harmless.
This triggers production of memory lymphocytes so if live pathogens get into your body memory lymphocytes can cause a fast secondary response so you are less likely to experience the symptoms.

Question 37

Immunisation pros

Answer 37

If large percentage of the population is immunised then epidemics can be prevented.
People who are not immunised will be less likely to catch the disease because there are fewer people to pass it on to them.
Smallpox has been wiped out by immunisation.

Question 38

How do fatty deposits cause heart attacks?

Answer 38

Where the artery wall is damaged (e.g by blood pressure), deposits of fat can build up. These can cause blood clots to form that can block blood flow. If this happens in the artery supplying the heart muscle, then the heart will be deprived of oxygen and person will have a heart attack.

Question 39

How do antibiotics work?

Answer 39

They inhibit processes in bacterial cells and not in the host organism.

Question 40

Why don’t antibiotics destroy viruses?

Answer 40

They reproduce with your body cells so you can’t destroy the virus without killing the body cell.

Question 41

Stages in development of new drugs

Answer 41

Discovery, development (preclinical and clinical testing)

Question 42

Preclinical testing

Answer 42

Drugs are tested on human cells and tissues (not possible if drug is meant to affect whole body systems).
Drug is then tested on live animal to find how toxic it is and what the best dosage is.

Question 43

Clinical testing

Answer 43

If animal tests passed, then it is first tested on healthy human volunteers to check for side effects.
If no harmful side effects, drug tested on sufferers of illness and optimum dose is found (most effective with least side effects).
Patients put into two groups and blind placebo test is done with one group receiving drug and the other receiving placebo.