Drugs and Monoclonal Antibodies

Hiya!

Another topic today on disease but this time we're curing/managing it with drugs! Hope you prescribe your attention fully to this one (these puns keep getting better and better!) Happy reading!

Drugs are used to treat diseases (some). Antibiotics are used to kill bacteria and fungi whereas painkillers are used to treat the symptoms caused by these diseases. Penicillin was developed by Alexander Fleming as a blob of mould was unusually secluded on a petri dish due to the drugs killing the bacteria in certain places.

Antibiotic resistance can develop if a patient doesn’t complete a full prescribed course of antibiotics because the weaker strains of bacteria are killed of first, if they stop taking the drugs then only the stronger and more resistant bacteria remain to reproduce. The original drugs won’t work anymore because the bacteria have become resistant to it. New drugs may be taken but they might not work.

New drugs are always being developed because; there are always new diseases emerging, some diseases still have no cure/treatment, antibiotic resistance issues, improving current drugs and their side affects

Colourful array of chemicals(Rawpixel)

When new drugs are produced, they must meet a specific criteria;

-It must work better than previous drugs

-It must be effectively removed from the body after the desired effect

-It must have as few side effects as possible

-It must be able to be stored for long periods of time

Monoclonal antibodies can be produced for specific uses like treating diseases and diagnosing certain conditions. They are produced in a relatively complex process;

1       Mice are injected with the pathogen or chemical containing the specific antigen

2.       The injection stimulates the production of the complimentary antibodies in the lymphocytes.

3.       These lymphocytes are collected from the mouse and fused with a myeloma (tumour) cell as they can divide quickly (this is advantageous) which creates a hybridoma cell

4.       This hybridoma cell produces the required antibodies for the pathogen whilst also having the ability to divide quickly thanks to the tumour cell

An adorable ultrasound read below about pregnancy
and monoclonal antibodies(Daiga Ellaby)

Monoclonal antibodies are used for several things;

•          Pregnancy testing kits
•          Cancer diagnostics
•          Delivering cancer drugs
•         Detecting blood clots

Pregnancy testing kits work using monoclonal antibodies and it’s important to know how:

1.       Urine is applied to the testing strip at the end of the test

2.       The urine passes through the reaction zone

3.       In the reaction zone, the HCG hormone binds to HCG mobile antibody

4.      The HCG hormone-antibody complex moves up the strip

5.      The HCG antibody complex binds to the immobilised antibodies in the results window causing dye to be released- a line appears in the results window

6.      The unbound antibodies in the reaction zone continue to the control window and form another hormone-antibody complex up in the control zone

7.      The complex again bonds to immobilised antibodies in the control zone. This will also release a dye

8.      If lines appear in both windows, the woman is pregnant. If not, she is not. If a line is not in the control window, but the results window it is an error.