Vaccines

• How do vaccines work?

  • The person must be healthy
  • Vaccine is injected into a fleshy part of the body. Inside the vaccine is a dead or inactive pathogen
  • White blood cells produce antibodies and attack the dead pathogen
  • Pathogen is destroyed
  • The white blood cells become memory cells and are ready to fight for the same infection another time
• What is an antibiotic?

  Medicine that inhibits the growth of or destroys microorganisms
• What is a painkiller?


  A drug or medicine for relieving pain
• Phases for new drugs / drug trials:

  1. Checking for safety
  2. Checking for efficacy
  3. Confirm findings in a larger patient population
  4. Testing long term safety in a diverse patient population
• Properties of new medicines:

  • Safe
  • Stable or lasts long
  • Effective
• What are monoclonal antibodies?

  Cells produced from a cloned white blood cell and often are used for specific substances
• How can we make MABs (monoclonal antibodies)?

  1. A mouse is injected with an antigen
  2. The white blood cells form the mouse are extracted and put with tumour cells
  3. A hybridoma cell is created (tumour + plasma cell)
  4. This then makes the MAB
• What are the limitations of MABs?

  Can produce unwanted side affects and are very expensive to produce.
• What is angioplasty?


  A medical procedure allowing doctors to see inside of a blood vessel. Dye is added to view the affected blood vessel.