Vaccination, Antibiotics and Painkillers

Question 1

What is vaccination

Answer 1

Vaccination involves introducing small quantities of dead or inactive
forms of a pathogen into the body to stimulate the white blood cells
to produce antibodies

Question 2

Why can’t vaccination lead to a disease in a patient

Answer 2

Because the pathogen is dead or inactive, it cannot lead to the disease in the patient.

Question 3

Describe how vaccination can prevent illness in an individual

Answer 3

Small quantities of dead or inactive forms of a pathogen are introduced into the body.

The white blood cells are now stimulated to produce antibodies against the dead or inactive pathogens

At the same time, the white blood cell divides by mitosis, to produce lots of copies of itself.

These copies of the white blood cell can develop into memory cells

If the same pathogen now enters the body, in the future, the white blood cells can produce the correct antibodies quickly. This prevents infection.

Question 4

Describe how vaccination can prevent the spread of pathogens in a population

HERD IMMUNITY

Answer 4

If enough people are vaccinated, then there are fewer people to pass the disease on. This protects the unvaccinated people.

However, if a significant number of people are not vaccinated, then the spread of disease can spread through them. This risks epidemics

HERD IMMUNITY

Question 5

If a large proportion of the population is ______ to a pathogen, the spread of the pathogen is much reduced

Answer 5

If a large proportion of the population is immune to a pathogen, the spread of the pathogen is much reduced

Question 6

Define the term antibody

Answer 6

An antibody is a protein produced by white blood cells in response to the presence of an antigen

Question 7

Define the term antigen

Answer 7

An antigen is a molecule on the surface of a cell or a pathogen
Foreign antigens trigger white blood cells to produce antibodies

Question 8

Define the term antitoxin

Answer 8

An antitoxin is a protein produced by white blood cells that counteracts toxins made by invading bacteria

Question 9

Define the term antibiotic

Answer 9

An antibiotic is a drug used to kill or prevent the growth of bacteria

Question 10

Define antibiotic resistance

Answer 10

Antibiotic resistance is when bacteria are not killed by an antibiotic

Question 11

Describe how certain diseases can be treated using antibiotics

Answer 11

Antibiotics kill infective bacteria inside the human body without harming body cells.

Question 12

State some characteristics about antibiotics

Answer 12

It is important that specific bacteria should be
treated by specific antibiotics.
Antibiotics cannot kill viruses

Question 13

What can doctors prescribe instead of antibiotics

Answer 13

Doctors can prescribe painkillers

Question 14

What do painkillers do

Answer 14

Painkillers treat the symptoms of a disease by relieving pain, but do not kill the pathogens that cause it

Question 15

Painkillers do not kill ______
They do not treat the disease itself

Answer 15

Painkillers do not kill pathogen
They do not treat the disease itself

Question 16

Explain why antibiotics cannot kill viruses

Answer 16

Viruses live and reproduce inside human cells.
Because of this, it is difficult to develop drugs that kill viruses without also damaging the body’s tissues and cells.

Question 17

Give an example of painkillers

Answer 17

Painkiller examples:
Paracetamol and Asparin

Question 18

State an example of antibiotic

Answer 18

Example of antibiotic
Penicillin

Question 19

Which drugs were extracted from plants

Answer 19

The plant foxglove was used to extract the heart drug digitalis

The painkiller aspirin was extracted from willow trees

Question 20

Which drugs were extracted from microorganisms

Answer 20

Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming from the Penicillium mould.

Question 21

State the processes of drug development

Answer 21

Discovery
Pre-clinical testing (1st stage of testing)
Clinical trials

Question 22

Describe the process of drug discovery

Answer 22

Drugs can be discovered from plants, microorganisms and Screening and Design

Question 23

Describe the process of Pre-clinical testing

Answer 23

Firstly, we need to check the toxicity of the drug (in other words whether it is safe for humans). We then need to check that the drug is effective (it treats the disease that we are looking at). We need to work out the best dose of the drug

Preclinical testing is not carried out on humans. This is because the drug could be extremely toxic.
Instead preclinical testing is carried out on cells, tissues and on live animals .

Question 24

Describe the process of clinical testing

Answer 24

Clinical testing is carried out on humans.

In the first stage of clinical testing, very low doses of the drug are given to healthy volunteers.

That is to check that the drug is safe in humans
If the drug is found to be safe, then clinical testing continues to find the optimal dose.

This is the best dose to treat the disease with the fewest side-effects.

In human trials, scientists use a double blind trial to see how effective the new drug is.
In a double-blind trial, the test group receive the active drug.
The placebo (control) group receive a dummy drug which looks exactly like the test drug but has no active ingredient.

In a double-blind trial neither the patients nor the doctors know which people are receiving the active drug and which are receiving the placebo.
This is to stop bias in case the doctors pay closer attention to people receiving the active drug.
The patient’s health is monitored carefully.

Question 25

Define placebo

Answer 25

A placebo is a tablet or injection with no active drug in it.

Question 26

Explain why some patients are going to get better when given a placebo

Answer 26

Some patients will get better if you give them a placebo. That is because they think they are being treated so they believe they are going to get better.