vaccines and medicine Flashcards
what is the purpose of vaccines and how do they work
-a way of stimulating an immune response to provide immunity to specific disease, antibodies and memory cells are produced, memory cells provide long term immunity
-vaccines contain antigens ,free or attached to a dead or weakened pathogen
what kind of antigenic material is used in vaccines and examples?
-whole live organism = small pox vaccine
-harmless weakened version = measles and TB vaccines
-dead pathogen = typhoid and cholera
-preparation of antigens from pathogen = hepatitis B
-toxoid (harmless version of toxin) = tetanus
what is herd immunity
when a large portion of a community becomes immune to disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely
what is ring vaccination and when could this be used?
-vaccination given to all people in the immediate vicinity of new cases of a disease
-can be used to control spread of livestock
why do we need a new flu vaccine every year
-viruses mutate creating new strains = different antigens = antibodies formed from previous vaccine aren’t specific or complimentary to new antigen
why is it important that we keep researching and developing new drugs
-new diseases are emerging
-still many diseases without effective treatment
-some antibiotics are becoming less effective
what important antibiotic was discovered by accident and by who?
penicillin by alexander flemming
what drug is derived from poppy plant
what drugs is willow bark used for?
1) morphine
2)aspirin ibuprofen
why are a number of drugs aimed at the receptors on the surface of pathogens
-bind to the virus’ receptors = prevents them from binding to body cells and entering cells
what problem has been associated with an overuse of antibiotics
give two examples
-resistance in bacteria e.g MRSA and C.diff
what does personalised medicine mean
sequencing technology and molecular modeling means we could screen genomes of plants and microorganisms to identify medicinal compounds from the DNA sequence
