Homework 5- Paper 1 revision Monoclonal antibodies and Elisa test
Q1.
(a) What is a monoclonal antibody?
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(b) After a disease is diagnosed, monoclonal antibodies are used in some medical
treatments.
Give one example of using monoclonal antibodies in a medical treatment.
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(c) Describe the role of antibodies in producing a positive result in an ELISA test.
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(Total 6 marks)
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Q2.
Malaria is a disease caused by parasites belonging to the genus Plasmodium. Two
species that cause malaria are Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax.
A test strip that uses monoclonal antibodies can be used to determine whether a person is
infected by Plasmodium. It can also be used to find which species of Plasmodium they are
infected by.
• A sample of a person’s blood is mixed with a solution containing an antibody, A, that
binds to a protein found in both species of Plasmodium. This antibody has a
coloured dye attached.
• A test strip is then put into the mixture. The mixture moves up the test strip by
capillary action to an absorbent pad.
• Three other antibodies, B, C and D are attached to the test strip. The position of
these antibodies and what they bind to is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
(a) Explain why antibody A attaches only to the protein found in species of
Plasmodium.
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(b) Antibody B is important if this test shows a person is not infected with Plasmodium.
Explain why antibody B is important.
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(c) One of these test strips was used to test a sample from a person thought to be
infected with Plasmodium. Figure 2 shows the result.
Figure 2
What can you conclude from this result?
Explain how you reached your conclusion.
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(4)
(Total 8 marks)
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