Biology - vaccinations

5.0 - 8.0

What do vaccines protect us from?

Against diseases caused by bacteria and viruses

What do vaccines contain?

A non-active version of the Pathogen

What do vaccines stimulate?

The production of memory cells specific to the antigen

Disadvantages of Vaccinations

A child could react badly to a vaccine with tragic results

Soreness at the vaccination site

Allergic Reactions

Advantages of Vaccinations

Protects you from disease

How can some diseases be prevented?

Good hygiene

Clean water

Improved diet

Vaccination

Antibiotics

Antibiotics

A medicine that prevents the growth of, or destroys micro-organisms

Antibiotic Resistance

Unaffected by antibiotics that should kill them

• can happen when people don’t finish the course of antibiotics their doctor prescribed

How does antibiotic resistance happen?

Mutation in the bacteria

MRSA can be controlled by;

• more rigorous hygiene in hospital wards, e.g. antibacterial handwashes, alcohol gels and thorough cleaning

• MRSA screening – testing people before admission to see if they are carrying the bacteria

What is MRSA caused by

Bacteria

MRSA

Cause of staph infection that is difficult to treat due to antibiotic resistance

The testing of new drugs (6)

1. The drug is tested on human cells grown outside the body in a laboratory.

2. The drug is then tested on animals.

3. The drug is tested on healthy volunteers.

4. Further trials are carried out to establish the optimum dose for the drug.

5. The drug is then trialled with a sample of people who have the disease or condition it is intended to treat. This is to see if it is more effective than current treatments.

6. If all these tests are passed, the drug is then licensed for general use.

Double-blind trial

Neither researcher or volunteers know who has taken the drug

Blind trial

Only researchers are aware of which volunteers has taken the drug

Disadvantage of Blind Trial

Researcher may alert to the volunteers who has taken the drug or not on accident - observer bias

Can make the results unreliable

Placebo

An inactive substance or other intervention that looks the same as, and is given the same way as, an active drug or treatment being tested.

What do Lymphocytes do?

Produce antibodies which will target a specific antigen

What are monoclonal antibodies produced from?

#Produced from activated lymphocytes which are able to divide continuously.

This produces very large numbers of identical antibodies, specific to one antigen.

Producing Monoclonal antibodies

In this process, B-lymphocytes are fused with tumour cells (cancer cells are used because they keep growing and dividing indefinitely) forming a hybridoma. This divides rapidly in laboratory conditions to form a clone.
The hybridoma continuously produces specific antibodies called monoclonal antibodies.

Uses of Monoclonal Antibodies

Monitoring the spread of Malaria

Destruction of cancer cells

Tissue Typing for transplants