Vaccination and drugs Flashcards
(12 cards)
How do vaccines work
Vaccines allow a dead or weakened pathogen to be injected into the body, which contain a specific antigen. This causes the immune system, specifically the white blood cells, to produce complementary
antibodies, which target and attach to the antigen. Some will remain in the blood as memory lymphacytes in case of reinfection
Positives of vaccines
Control communicable disease
Herd immunity
Negatives of vaccines
Don’t give immunity
Bad reaction to vaccines
What are painkillers
Medication that relieve the symptoms of a disease and relieve pain
What are antibiotics
Kill or prevent the growth of bacteria without killing human cells
How does bacteria become resistant to antibiotics
The bacteria can randomly mutate and become resistant to the antibiotic
People do not complete the full course of antibiotics and teh bacteria mutates to become resistant to the antibiotic as they were not killed by it originally
What is used to create aspirin
Willow tree
What is used to create digitalis
Foxgloves
What are the three stages of drug development
Tested on human tissues
Tested on animals
Tested on healthy volunteers
Tested on patients
Peer review
What is preclinical testing
Tested on human tissue to see if it can kill the cells or damage the DNA
Tested on animals to test for efficiency, toxicity and dosage as well as the impact on the entire body
What is clinical trials
Tested on healthy volunteers for side effects
Then tested on patients using the placebo effect to find the optimum dosage
Finally peer review to see if results are bias
What is tested for in drugs during clinical trials
Side effects
Optimum dosage
Toxicity
Effectivness
