3.

1
3.1.1 Communicable (Infectious) Diseases

Pathogens & Prevention of Diseases

 Communicable diseases have a range of causes (pathogens)

 Pathogens may be viruses, bacteria, protists and fungi; they are
microorganisms that cause infectious disease
 They can infect both plants and animals
 Bacteria – reproduce rapidly and can affect the host by
releasing toxins, these damage tissues and make us feel
unwell, (see Bacterial Diseases)
 Viruses – need a host to survive and reproduce, (see Viral
Diseases)
 Fungi – grow on living tissue, some are single-celled and
others have a body made of hyphae, see (Fungal Diseases)
 Protists – eukaryotic organisms some of them are parasitic,
that live on or inside the host organism. They are often
transferred by vectors, (see Protists)

Communicable Disease
Pathogens that are passed from one host to another and therefore the
diseases they cause are known as communicable diseases.

Pathogen spread table

Exam Tip
Pathogens can be spread by a range of transmission methods – you need
to be able to explain how these are transmitted and some ways to prevent
the transmission of these.Remember that bacteria produce toxins that
damage cells and viruses are replicated inside cells. This links to how
antibiotics are effective against bacteria but not viruses (see Antibiotics
and Painkillers).

3.1.2 viral diseases

Viruses: Basics

 There are many common diseases caused by viruses; for example,

the common cold and the flu are caused by viruses
 Viruses do not fulfil the 7 life processes, therefore, they are not
usually classified as living organisms
 Viruses do not have nuclei, organelles, or cytoplasm like cells
do, and so they have no way to monitor or create change in
their internal environment
 Viruses reproduce rapidly by inserting their genetic material into
host cells and creating new protein capsules to build new viral
particles
 Once many copies have been made, the host cell may burst open
releasing the viral particles which can go on to infect other cells

Measles

 Measles is a highly contagious and a potentially serious viral

infectious disease that can be fatal if complications arise
 Measles is most often seen in children – most young children are
vaccinated against it

Measles table

HIV
  HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that can eventually
lead to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)

HIV table

Tobacco Mosaic Virus


 Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) was the first virus to be isolated by
scientists
 It is a widespread plant pathogen that infects about 150 species of
plants including tomato plants and cucumbers

TMV table

Exam Tip
Know the symptoms and how the pathogen causing each disease is
spread. Typically this topic appears as data analysis questions in the
exam where you may be given a graph to analyse and interpret.

3.1.3 bacterial diseases

Bacteria: Basics

 Bacterial pathogens are cells that can infect plants and animals,
causing disease
 Not all bacteria are harmful (so not all bacteria are pathogens) –
both the skin and large intestine, in particular, are home to
hundreds of different bacterial species that play a vital role in
maintaining our health
 Bacteria on the skin act as competitors to harmful pathogens
 Bacteria in the large intestine digest substances we can’t in
food (such as cellulose) and provide essential nutrients (such
as Vitamin K)
 Bacterial pathogens produce toxins that cause damage to cells and
tissues directly
 In certain optimum conditions, some bacteria can reproduce rapidly
(with the fastest being once every 20 minutes for some species of
coli)
 Optimum conditions usually involve warmth, moisture and a
supply of nutrients

The graph shows the exponential growth of bacteria due to binary fission

Salmonella

 Salmonella food poisoning is spread by bacteria ingested in food, or

on food prepared in unhygienic conditions
 It is found in the gut of many different animals
Salmonella table

Gonorrhoea

 Gonorrhoea is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) – these diseases

are also called sexually transmitted infections (STI)
 In 2018 it had the largest increase (26%) of infections in the UK (a
total of 56,259 cases!). It was the cause of 13% of diagnosed STDs

Gonorrhoea table

3.1.4

Fungi: Basics
  Few fungal diseases that affect humans, one example is athletes'
foot. This is spread by contact with surfaces that have been touched
by an infected person, such as shower room floors
 Often the fungus is unicellular, as in the case of yeast, but can have
a body made up of thread-like structures called hyphae
 The hyphae can grow and penetrate the surface of plants and
animals causing infections
 The hyphae can produce spores, which can spread the
infection to other organisms
 Fungal infections are more common in plants and can destroy a crop
or plant

Spores
Similar to seeds in a plant the fungal spore is a microscopic particle that
allows the fungus to reproduce.

Rose Black Spot

 Rose black spot is a fungal disease of plants where purple or black

spots develop on leaves, which often turn yellow and drop early
 It affects the growth of the plant as photosynthesis is reduced
 It is spread in the environment by water or wind
 Rose black spot can be treated by using fungicides and/or removing
and destroying the affected leaves

Rose black spot table

3.1.5

Protists: Basics
  Protists are a diverse group of eukaryotic and usually unicellular
organisms
 Only a small number of protists are pathogenic, but the diseases
they cause are often serious
 Often need a vector to transfer from one host to the next

Malaria

 The pathogens that cause malaria are protists from the Plasmodium
family (four species); they have a complex life cycle but can infect
red blood cells in humans
 The malarial protist has a life cycle that includes the mosquito as a
vector
 Malaria causes recurrent episodes of fever and can be fatal in
certain instances
 The spread of malaria is controlled by preventing the vectors,
mosquitos, from breeding and by using mosquito nets to avoid
being bitten

Vector
An organism that does not cause a disease itself but which spreads
infection by transferring pathogens from one host to another.

Part of the malaria life cycle is in humans and the other part is in
mosquitos
Malaria table

3.1.6

Non-Specific Defences

 The human body has a number of mechanisms that are the first line
of defence against an infection
 The non-specific defence systems of the human body against
pathogens include:
 The skin
 The nose
 The trachea and bronchi
 The stomach

The different mechanisms can be divided into biochemical and physical

defences

The Immune System

 The immune system of the body is highly complex, with white blood
cells being the main component
 Once a pathogen has entered the body the role of the immune
system is to prevent the infectious organism from reproducing and
to destroy it
 White blood cells help to defend against pathogens by:
 Phagocytosis
 Production of antibodies
 Production of antitoxins (these are special types of antibody)
Phagocytosis
 Phagocytes engulf and digest pathogens, this can be non-specific or
helped by antibodies which cause agglutination (clumping) of
pathogens
 The phagocyte surrounds the pathogen and releases enzymes to
digest and break it down to destroy it

Phagocytes engulf and digest all the pathogens that they come across,
they can be enhanced by antibody production

Production of antibodies
 Lymphocytes produce antibodies
 Antibodies are Y-shaped proteins – each individual has the potential
to make millions of different types of antibodies, each with a slightly
different shape
 The aim of antibody production is to produce the antibody that is
specific (complementary) to the antigens on the surface of the
pathogen
 This is a specific type of immune response as the antibodies
produced are specific to each pathogen's antigens
The lymphocytes produce antibodies that are specific to the antigen on
the pathogen

 It can take a few days to make the antibodies that are specific to a
pathogen and this may give the pathogen causing the infection
enough time to make you feel unwell (as its numbers in the body,
and consequently the damage caused by them, increases)
 Memory cells are lymphocytes that remain in the body after an
initial infection with a particular pathogen; they produce the specific
antibodies against its antigens so that if you get infected by the
same pathogen again in the future (and the antigens are the same)
you can produce antibodies much quicker against it before its
numbers increase and it can cause damage to the tissues of the
body

Production of antitoxins
 Some pathogens (usually bacteria) can produce substances which
act as toxins which make you feel unwell
 Lymphocytes can produce antibodies against these substances – in
this case, they are called antitoxins
 The antitoxins neutralise the effects of the toxin

Lymphocytes produce specific antitoxins to specific pathogens

Exam Tip
Make sure you know the difference between antigen, antibody and
antitoxin:
 An antigen is a molecule found on the surface of a cell
 An antibody is a protein made by lymphocytes that is
complementary to an antigen and, when attached, clumps them
together and signals the cells they are on for destruction
 An antitoxin is a protein that neutralises the toxins produced by
bacteria

3.1.7

Why Vaccinate?

 Vaccination will prevent illness in an individual by providing artificial

immunity
 Vaccination involves exposing an individual to the antigens of a
pathogen in some form, triggering an immune response which
results in the formation of memory cells which can make antibodies
against it
 If a vaccinated individual is infected with the pathogen, they can
destroy it before they become infectious
 Consequently, vaccines reduce the likelihood that an infected
individual will spread the pathogen they have been vaccinated
against to others
 If a large number of the population are vaccinated, it is unlikely that
an unvaccinated individual will become infected with the pathogen
 This is the principle behind the idea of herd immunity
 There are three main scenarios with vaccination:
 There are no vaccinations and the disease spreads quickly
 Some of the population are vaccinated and the disease
spreads to less people
  Most of the population are vaccinated and this prevents the
spread

Herd immunity protects the vulnerable that may not be able to have the
vaccine

Worldwide vaccination
 The role of the WHO is to monitor global diseases, they will track if a
disease is endemic, epidemic or pandemic
 The importance of vaccines cannot be underestimated:
 The number of people with measles worldwide is increasing
even though there is a vaccine
 The increase is due to a drop in the vaccination rate globally –
there was some controversy over the MMR vaccine in 1998
and the number of vaccinations dropped significantly after
this
 Vaccines have reduced drastically the cases of diseases worldwide

Vaccination statistics table

Advantages & disadvantages of vaccination table

How do Vaccines Work?

 Vaccination involves introducing small quantities of dead or inactive

forms of a pathogen into the body to stimulate the white blood cells
to produce antibodies
 If the same pathogen re-enters the body the white blood cells
respond quickly to produce the correct antibodies, preventing
infection

The process of long-term immunity by vaccination

  There are two types of immunity:
 Active immunity that comes from the body creating antibodies
to a disease either by exposure to the disease (natural) or by
vaccination (artificial)
 Passive immunity that comes from antibodies given to you
from another organism, for example in breast milk
 With the measles vaccine, for example, vaccination with a
weakened form of the measles virus results in the production of
antibodies and memory cells
 When exposed to the virus naturally and infected, an individual can
produce a higher concentration of antibodies much more quickly to
destroy it

Graph showing the number of measles antibodies in the blood following

vaccination and infection

3.1.8

Antibiotics & Painkillers

 When treating a disease there are two types of medication that an

individual can take:
 Medicines that treat the cause of the disease – antibiotics
 Medicines which treat the symptoms of the disease – eg.
painkillers

 Antibiotics, such as penicillin, are medicines that help to cure
bacterial disease by killing infective bacteria inside the body
 The use of antibiotics has greatly reduced the deaths from
infections in the last century
 Only certain antibiotics will work on certain diseases, however, so a
doctor will prescribe different antibiotics depending on the type of
infection
  It is important that specific bacteria should be treated by specific
antibiotics that are known to work against them
 Antibiotics work by stopping bacteria cellular processes such as the
production of the cell wall – they affect processes usually only in
bacteria so are not harmful to animal cells

Penicillin was the first antibiotic to be discovered and is widely used,

although resistance is a problem

 Antibiotics will not work against viruses, as viruses reproduce inside

cells. It is difficult to develop drugs that kill viruses without also
damaging the body’s tissues
 Painkillers and other medicines are used to treat the symptoms of
disease but do not kill pathogens (eg. ibuprofen can reduce pain and
inflammation)

Antibiotic Resistance

 The use of antibiotics has increased exponentially since they were

first introduced in the 1930s
 In that time they have saved millions of lives

The introduction of antibiotics has had one of the largest impacts on

global health, shown by this example in the USA
  However, since their discovery and widespread use, antibiotics have
been overused and antibiotic resistance has developed in many
different types of bacterial species
 Bacteria, like all organisms, have random mutations in their
DNA
 One of these mutations may give them resistance to an
antibiotic
 If an organism is infected with bacteria and some of them
have resistance, they are likely to survive treatment with
antibiotic
 The population of the resistant bacteria will increase
 If the resistant strain is causing a serious infection then
another antibiotic will be needed
 A strain of Staphylococcus aureus has developed resistance to
a powerful antibiotic methicillin, this is known as MRSA
(Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus)
 MRSA can infect wounds and is difficult to treat without
antibiotics

Bacteria evolve rapidly as they reproduce quickly and acquire random

mutations – some of which confer resistance

Preventing resistant bacteria

 To reduce the number of bacteria that are becoming resistant to
antibiotics:
  Doctors need to avoid the overuse of antibiotics, prescribing
them only when needed – they may test the bacteria first to
make sure that they prescribe the correct antibiotic
 Antibiotics shouldn't be used in non-serious infections that the
immune system will ‘clear up’
 Antibiotics shouldn't be used for viral infections
 Patients need to finish the whole course of antibiotics so that
all the bacteria are killed and none are left to mutate to
resistant strains
 Antibiotics use should be reduced in industries such as
agriculture – controls are now in place to limit their use in
farming

Reducing the spread of resistant strains

 Good hygiene practices such as handwashing and the use of hand
sanitisers have reduced the rates of resistant strains of bacteria,
such as MRSA, in hospitals
 The isolation of infected patients to prevent the spread of resistant
strains, in particular in surgical wards where MRSA can infect
surgical wounds

3.1.9

Discovering New Drugs

 Traditionally drugs were extracted from plants and microorganisms

 New drugs are being developed all the time by scientists at
universities and drug companies around the world
 Lots of the medications that we use today are based on chemicals
extracted from plants
 The heart drug digitalis originates from foxgloves
 The painkiller aspirin originates from willow
 Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming from the
Penicillium mould
 Most new drugs are synthesised by chemists in the pharmaceutical
industry. However, the starting point may still be a chemical
extracted from a plant

Drugs from plants table

  Penicillin was first discovered by Alexander Flemming in 1928. He
left some Petri dishes that had been contaminated with mould and
found the bacteria would not grow near the mould
 He discovered that the mould (Penicillium notatum) was releasing a
chemical (penicillin) that killed the bacteria surrounding it
 New drugs are now developed by the pharmaceutical industry. Many
of these still have plants as their source

Testing New Drugs

 All new drugs need to be tested and trialled before they can be used
in patients. They are tested for:
 Toxicity – does it have harmful side effects?
 Efficacy – does the drug work?
 Dose – what dose is the lowest that can be used and still have
an effect?
 The results of any testing are then peer-reviewed to make sure that
the results are described accurately. The results would then be
published in journals

Developing New Drugs

 Preclinical testing is done in a laboratory using cells, tissues and live
animals
 Clinical trials use healthy volunteers and patients
 Very low doses of the drug are given at the start of the clinical trial
 If the drug is found to be safe, further clinical trials are carried out to
find the optimum dose for the drug
 In double-blind trials, some patients are given a placebo

The 3 stages of drug development

 Preclinical Testing
 The drug is tested on cells in the lab
 Computer models may also be used to simulate the metabolic
pathways that may be taken by the drug
 Efficacy and toxicity are tested at this stage

 Whole organism testing

 The drug is tested on animals to see the effect in a whole
organism – all new medicines in the UK have to have tests on
2 different animals by law
 Efficacy, toxicity and dosage are tested at this stage

 Clinical trials
 The drug is tested on human volunteers first, generally with a
very low dose then increased. This is to make sure it is safe in
a body that is working normally
  The next stage is to test on patients with the condition.
The patients are often split into two groups; one given the
drug the other given a placebo. This is called a double-blind
study – neither the doctor nor the patient knows if the patient
is getting the placebo or the active drug
 Once the drug is found to be safe then the lowest effective
dose is tested at this stage

Future medications
 Pharmaceutical companies are always looking to find new
medications these include:
 Vaccinations to different diseases
 Antibiotics that have a different action on the bacteria, so that
bacteria are not resistant to them
 Painkillers with fewer side effects
 Antiviral drugs that don’t damage the body’s tissues
 Sources of these medications may be plants or microorganisms