Health, Disease & the Development of MedicinesEdexcel GCSE Biology: Topic test

20 questions, 54 marks

Edexcel GCSE Biology

Health, Disease & the Development of Medicines topic test

Total 54 marks

Name

Class

Date

1
A construction site houses migrant workers in crowded, poorly ventilated dormitories. Over several weeks, health workers record a rising number of workers with a persistent cough, chest pain and blood-streaked sputum. Tests confirm the workers have tuberculosis (TB).
(a)
What type of pathogen causes tuberculosis?
[1 mark]
ABacterium
BVirus
CFungus
DProtist
(b)
How is TB mainly transmitted between the workers in the crowded dormitories?
[1 mark]
AContaminated water
BAirborne droplets
CAnimal vectors
DDirect blood contact
(c)
Suggest two changes to the dormitories or working conditions that could help reduce the spread of TB between the workers.
[2 marks]
Total for question 1: 4 marks
2
A hiker sustains a small graze to her leg while walking through woodland. Over the next hour, mucus lining her airways traps dust and microorganisms she breathes in, hydrochloric acid in her stomach kills many of the bacteria she swallows with her food, and a blood clot begins to form a scab over the graze on her leg.
(a)
Which substance described is an example of a chemical defence against pathogens?
[1 mark]
AMucus
BSkin
CHydrochloric acid
DScab
(b)
Which structures move mucus, along with any trapped pathogens, out of the airways?
[1 mark]
ALysozymes
BPlatelets
CAntibodies
DCilia
(c)
Explain how the graze on the hiker's leg is protected from pathogens entering her body once the scab has formed.
[2 marks]
Total for question 2: 4 marks
3
A biomedical company is developing a monoclonal antibody treatment for a type of cancer. Scientists first identify lymphocytes that produce an antibody which binds specifically to an antigen found on the surface of the cancer cells. These lymphocytes cannot divide indefinitely by themselves, so the scientists fuse them with a tumour cell line that divides continuously, to produce hybridoma cells.
(a)
Describe how the hybridoma cells are produced, and explain why they are useful for producing large quantities of the antibody.
[3 marks]
(b)
Explain how the monoclonal antibodies produced could be used to treat the patient's cancer, and evaluate one advantage of this treatment compared with treating the cancer using radiotherapy alone.
[4 marks]
Total for question 3: 7 marks
4
A public health team is investigating why children in a community affected by chronic malnutrition are experiencing unusually high rates of severe illness from common bacteria and viruses that rarely cause serious illness in well-nourished children elsewhere in the same country. The team is considering both improving nutrition and introducing a vaccination programme to address the problem.
(a)
Explain why chronic malnutrition (a condition linked to diet) might make these children more susceptible to communicable diseases caused by pathogens, and suggest why the presence of one health problem, such as malnutrition, can increase susceptibility to a completely different type of disease.
[6 marks]
(b)
Evaluate how a vaccination programme could help protect this community against a serious communicable disease, including how herd immunity could benefit children too malnourished to be safely vaccinated, and discuss one limitation of relying on vaccination alone to solve the community's health problems.
[6 marks]
Total for question 4: 12 marks
5
A pharmaceutical researcher is trialling a new drug intended to treat high blood pressure, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Before the drug can be sold, it must be shown to be both safe and effective at each stage of testing.
(a)
Which stage of drug development involves testing a new drug on human volunteers for the first time?
[1 mark]
ADiscovery
BClinical testing
CPreclinical testing
DDistribution
(b)
During which stage of drug development is a new drug first tested on cells, tissues and live animals, rather than on humans?
[1 mark]
APreclinical testing
BClinical testing
CDiscovery
DDevelopment
(c)
Suggest two reasons why a new drug must pass through preclinical testing before it is given to human volunteers in clinical trials.
[2 marks]
Total for question 5: 4 marks
6
A fruit farmer notices that leaves on several of her apple trees have started to fall early, and dark lesions have appeared on the bark of the affected trees. A plant pathologist confirms the trees are infected with a fungal disease that is spreading between trees in the orchard, likely carried on the wind.
(a)
What type of pathogen is causing disease in the apple trees?
[1 mark]
ABacterium
BVirus
CProtist
DFungus
(b)
How is the fungal disease most likely spreading between the trees in the orchard?
[1 mark]
AThrough contaminated water
BThrough an animal vector
CThrough the air (airborne spores)
DThrough direct root contact only
(c)
Suggest two physical or chemical defences the apple trees might use to try to prevent the fungal pathogen from entering their leaves and bark.
[2 marks]
Total for question 6: 4 marks
7
A microbiology student cultures bacteria on three identical circular agar plates, each with a radius of 4.5 cm. She places a paper disc soaked in a different antibiotic at the centre of each plate. After incubation, a circular zone of clear agar, where no bacteria have grown, forms around each disc: plate 1 has a clear zone of radius 1.2 cm, plate 2 has a clear zone of radius 2.0 cm, and plate 3 shows no clear zone at all.
(a)
Calculate the area of the whole agar plate and the area of the clear zone on plate 2, using π = 3.14, and use these values to explain what the size of a clear zone shows about how effective an antibiotic is against the bacteria.
[3 marks]
(b)
Plate 3 shows no clear zone at all around the antibiotic disc. Suggest two possible explanations for this result, and describe one change the student could make to her experiment to check that her aseptic technique was not the cause of contamination affecting her results.
[4 marks]
Total for question 7: 7 marks
8
A national health agency is reviewing its strategy for a region where sexually transmitted Chlamydia infection rates have been rising for several years. The agency is considering combining a public antibiotic treatment programme for infected individuals with an education campaign about how the infection spreads, and is also monitoring the development of new antibiotics as older ones become less effective against some bacterial infections in the region.
(a)
Explain how Chlamydia is spread between people, evaluate why an education campaign about transmission could reduce the number of new infections, and explain why the disease is described as an STI rather than being categorised in the same way as an airborne or water-borne disease.
[6 marks]
(b)
Explain why antibiotics can be used to treat this bacterial infection but would be ineffective against a viral STI, and evaluate the concern that older antibiotics are becoming less effective against some bacterial infections in the region, including what this means for the development of new antibiotics.
[6 marks]
Total for question 8: 12 marks

End of questions