Heroin is a highly addictive drug.

Heroin slows down the users' breathing rate and heart rate, which can lead to overdose deaths.

Scientists have found that monoclonal antibodies can be used to bind to heroin.

Monoclonal antibodies reduce heroin's effects.

What is an antibody?

Scientists are using mice to make the antibodies against heroin.

Describe how monoclonal antibodies against heroin can be produced in a laboratory.

Explain why these antibodies would not work against another drug such as cannabis.

Ebola is disease caused by a virus caught from wild animals.

Between 2013 and 2016 there was an outbreak of Ebola estimated to have caused the deaths of more than 11,000 people.

Why is the number of deaths from Ebola only an estimate?

Drug companies have developed new drugs to treat Ebola.

Explain what testing must be done before the drugs can be used to treat people.

There are currently two treatments approved to treat Ebola in adults and children. One of the drugs, Ebanga, is made of monoclonal antibodies.

Describe how scientists produce monoclonal antibodies.

Monoclonal antibodies are a relatively new technology that can be used to identify and treat a range of specific diseases.

Number the steps below to show how monoclonal antibodies are made.

The mouse’s lymphocytes produce antibodies in response to the antigen.

Hybridoma cells are cloned and tested to see if they are producing the correct antibody.

The correct clone is selected and grown on a large scale.

Lymphocytes are combined with tumour cells, producing a hybridoma cell.

A mouse is exposed to an antigen.

The monoclonal antibodies are collected and purified.

Explain how monoclonal antibodies can be used to help diagnose some diseases.

Why are lymphocytes combined with tumour cells to produce hybridoma cells?

Pregnancy tests use monoclonal antibodies. 

The monoclonal antibodies in pregnancy tests bind with a hormone called hCG which is only found in the urine of pregnant women.

Pregnancy tests are made up of four different zones:

1. The tip, which is dipped in urine.
2. The reaction zone, which contains mobile antibodies specific to hCG. The antibodies have a dye attached to them, and can move up the pregnancy test to the result and control windows.
3. The result window, which contains immobilised antibodies specific to hCG.
4. The control window, which contains immobilised antibodies that are specific to the mobile antibodies present in the reaction zone.

The pregnancy test will show two lines when a woman is pregnant.

Explain how the pregnancy test strip works to show a positive result.

Give two more uses of monoclonal antibodies in medicine.

Fire blight is a bacterial disease that affects many species of plants, including apple and pear trees.

The fire blight pathogen can rapidly spread through orchards, leading to significant economic losses and impacting fruit quality.

Scientists have made monoclonal antibodies that recognise the bacteria that cause fire blight.

Describe how scientists make monoclonal antibodies.

The monoclonal antibody binds to an antigen on the bacteria that causes fire blight.

It will not bind to other types of cell.

Explain why.

Give one advantage and one disadvantage of using monoclonal antibodies.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can be used in the detection and treatment of cancer.

Which of these statements about monoclonal antibodies is incorrect?

Scientists have produced a monoclonal antibody to treat pancreatic cancer.

Explain how the monoclonal antibody works to treat pancreatic cancer.

Scientists have used human lymphocytes to make monoclonal antibodies to some types of cancer cells.

Suggest one reason why these mAbs have been more successful in treating diseases in humans than mAbs made using mice.

Monoclonal antibodies that target a certain COVID-19 virus protein have been shown to have clinical benefits in treating patients.

Suggest two precautions that a person with COVID-19 could take to reduce the spread of the virus to other people.

Scientists can produce monoclonal antibodies using mice.

The first step is to inject the virus into a mouse.

Describe the remaining steps in the procedure to produce monoclonal antibodies.

Describe how an injection with a monoclonal antibody for COVID-19 may help to treat a patient suffering with the disease.