Topic 6 - Preventing and Treating Disease

Question 1

What is vaccination?

Answer 1

Giving a person a dead or inactive version of a virus to force the body to make antibodies to treat disease if they were ever infected as memory cells would be present.

Question 2

What is herd immunity?

Answer 2

When a large portion of the population cannot be infected so people who don’t have the vaccine can’t be infected by having it passed on.

Question 3

What are painkillers useful for?

Answer 3

Treating pain caused by a pathogenic infection.

Question 4

What is the problem with painkillers?

Answer 4

They do not kill the pathogen but simply help to fix the pain.

Question 5

What are two examples of painkillers?

Answer 5

Paracetamol and Aspirin.

Question 6

How do antibiotics work?

Answer 6

They kill the virus in your body before it can reproduce, without killing any of the body cells.

Question 7

What are the problems with antibiotics?

Answer 7

They cannot kill viruses and therefore have no effect on viral diseases. Also, some strains of bacteria are evolving to withstand antibiotics, making them more and more obsolete as people use them more, demanding new ones to be made.

Question 8

Where does digitalis come from?

Answer 8

Foxglove plants in forests.

Question 9

What are digitalis and digoxin used for?

Answer 9

Strengthening the heartbeat.

Question 10

In the 1920s, Alexander Fleming was growing bacteria, by being rather careless, he left his culture of bacteria when he went on holiday. What did he see when he came back?

Answer 10

He saw a mould had grown, he called it Penicillin. After 10 years, American scientists extracted penicillin for medical use.

Question 11

How do scientists synthesise drugs for medical use?

Answer 11

Compounds showing promise are trialed on unicellular organisms, then multicellular organisms, then mammals, then healthy humans and then all patients, throughout these trials, drug dosage and intensity are tested for.

Question 12

What are the 4 needs for a drug?

Answer 12

1) It needs to be effective and do its intended job well.
2) The drug must not harm the person and be safe to use in any environment.
3) The drug must be stable and be able to be used in normal conditions.
4) Easily able to be taken in and removed from the body.

Question 13

Before a specific compound has been selected to be used it is in what stage of trialing?

Answer 13

Pre-clinical trials, where testing takes place on cells, tissues and animals.

Question 14

What is the name for trials of thousands of chemical compounds at once, before pre-clinical trials?

Answer 14

Computer simulating trials.

Question 15

What is the name of trials on humans, using a few different potential compounds?

Answer 15

Clinical trials.

Question 16

What is a double blind trial?

Answer 16

A trial where neither the patient nor the doctor knows whether they have been given the real drug or a placebo, to test whether the effects come from the drug or the psychology of the person.

Question 17

What is a placebo drug?

Answer 17

A drug given to someone that doesn’t actually contain the drug, but tests whether someone thinks they will feel better or if they are actually improving.

Question 18

What is left behind when antibodies are made?

Answer 18

Memory cells that the body can use to make more antibodies later.

Question 19

How much of the population need to be vaccinated for herd immunity to exist?

Answer 19

90-95%

Question 20

What are some arguments for vaccination?

Answer 20

It avoids severe disease, it is safe and cheap.

Question 21

What are some arguments against vaccination?

Answer 21

Potential side effects may be severe, people dislike needles, conspiracy theories, people don’t see its effects.

Question 22

What is a monoclonal antibody?

Answer 22

A health treatment that targets a specific disease with the ability to rapidly divide like cancer cells.

Question 23

What are monoclonal antibodies used for?

Answer 23

Treating cancer, as it can target cancer cells, preventing them from dividing and dividing as rapidly as them.

Question 24

What is direct labelling with monoclonal antibodies?

Answer 24

The monoclonal antibody attaches to the antigen on a cancer cell, labelling it to be engulfed by a phagocyte.

Question 25

How do monoclonal antibodies prevent growth?

Answer 25

Monoclonal antibodies block the growth promoter to prevent a growth stimulating molecule from binding to the receptor site.

Question 26

How do monoclonal antibodies deliver drugs?

Answer 26

Monoclonal antibodies bind to the antigen, releasing radioactive or toxic chemicals into the pathogen, killing cancer cell.

Question 27

How do tumour cells form?

Answer 27

A mutation in the DNA of a cell can lead to uncontrolled cell growth, using a blood supply to grow and take over the body because of its oxygen and nutrients.

Question 28

What is a benign tumour?

Answer 28

A tumour that can only stay in the area of the body that it originated in, that maybe surrounded by a membrane. Benign tumours are not usually lethal unless present in the brain.

Question 29

What is a malignant tumour?

Answer 29

A tumour that can migrate, using the blood stream to travel to other places in the body and affecting them. These tumours are fatal if untreated.