03 Drug development and treatment – Test Questions
For Multiple Choice questions, please choice the corrects answers. There may be more than
one correct answer. Sometimes there may be no correct answer.
A “thiopurine” drug is very good to treat leukemia. It is used on two girls. One girl begins to
get better very quickly. The other girl begins to get sicker.
The drug can either be converted to the active form or can be inactivated by the TPMT
enzyme. The doctor tested the sick girl and found that her TPMT enzyme activity level was
extremely low.
The wild-type human TPMT allele (TPMT*1) and variant alleles TPMT*3A, TPMT*3B, and
TPMT*3C. Rectangles represent exons, with black coding areas and white untranslated
regions.
A new patient is homozygous for TPMT*1.
1. Circle the area of the graph that might
likely corresponds to the patient’s
TGN and enzyme activity levels.
2. What level of the drug should Dr.
Ryder give him?
A. none
B. low
C. medium
D. high
3. This is an example of:
A. drug development
B. personalized medicine
C. enzyme copy
4. How long does it take to discover,
develop and test a new medicine?
1. About 5 years
2. About 12 years
3. About 20 years
4. About 3 years
1
5. A good outcome for patients is a new
medicine to
A. treat a disease,
B. stop it's symptoms
C. do nothing
D. stop the disease from happening
6. Where could we get ideas for new
medicines?
A. traditional plant that has been
used to treat a disease
B. looking at star positions
C. improving an existing way of
treating a disease
D. knowledge of how proteins work
7. What are some ways of finding a new
medicine
A. computer design of molecules
B. screening of thousands of
molecules which are already
known or have been found in
microorganisms, animals or
plants
C. go to lectures in biomedical
science
D. find a chemical or biological
molecule that might treat a
disease
8. Preclinical development can include
A. making small quantities of the
molecule
B. tests for toxicity on cell
cultures
C. tests for potential therapeutic
effects
D. tests for how easily the
compounds can be made,
E. tests for how easily they are
absorbed when given orally
9. Before a new compound can be given
to humans, tests have to be done to
find out:
2
whether it is likely to be effective
whether it is toxic when given
every day for a long time?
C. does it cause cancer?
D. how it is going to be absorbed and
excreted by the body
A.
B.
10. Phase 1 clinical trials
A. often done in healthy volunteers
B. often done in sick volunteers
C. test new drugs on thousands of
volunteers
D. involve large doses of the drug.
E. sometimes tests using a placebo
11. Phase 2 clinical trials
1. often done in healthy volunteers
2. often done in sick volunteers
3. test new drugs on thousands of
volunteers
4. involve large doses of the drug.
5. sometimes tests using a placebo
12. Phase 3 clinical trials
A. often done in healthy volunteers
B. often done in sick volunteers
C. test new drugs on thousands of
volunteers
D. involve large doses of the drug.
E. sometimes tests using a placebo
13. Biotechnology is the industrial use
of biological material. It can be used
to:
A. grow microorganisms to extract
drugs
B. genetically engineer bacteria to
produce useful proteins for use as
medicines.
C. grow vaccines or hormones,
D. produce monoclonal antibodies
14. Molecular modeling is a collection of
(computer based) techniques for
deriving, representing and
manipulating
A. the size and manufacture of
molecules
B. the shape and cost of molecules
C. the structure and origin of
molecules
D. the structures and reactions of
molecules.
15. Biological activity of a new drug is
dependent on the three dimensional
placement of specific functional
groups. These are called
A. chromophores
B. metaphors
C. pharmacophores
D. medicophores
16. Molecular modeling tools are being
successfully used:
A. to examine the structural
properties of existing compounds,
B. to relate structural properties to
observed activity
C. to use “rules” to predict properties
and activities for new chemicals
D. to discover new compounds in the
natural world
17. A drug which functions by stimulating
the activity of its target is called an
_____________.
18. A drug which functions by blocking or
inhibiting the activity of its target is
called an _____________.
Rational Drug Design
19. Which of the following steps are in
rational drug design:
A. Disease conditions are researched
to identify specific biological target
B.
C.
D.
E.
molecules - as these molecules are
usually proteins, this involves
proteomics
Structural information is
determined using methods such as
X-ray crystallography or nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR)
imaging
Online databases are referenced
to identify chemical compounds
most likely to interact favorably
with the desired target molecule
Treatment compounds can be
developed using molecular
modelling software designed to
optimize and improve the
identified chemical analogs
The designed drug can be
synthesized (using combinatorial
chemistry) and tested in animal
and clinical trials to determine its
therapeutic value
20. One of the first drugs produced by
rational drug design was Relenza,
which was designed to treat the
spread of infection of the influenza
virus. Whish of the following is true?
A. Relenza was developed by
identifying molecules most likely
to interact with neuraminidase
B. Neuraminidase is a virus-produced
enzyme that is needed to release
newly formed virions from an
infected cell
C. It cleaves the haemagglutinin
glycoprotein which anchors the
virion to the infected cell's surface,
thereby mediating its release
D. By blocking the active site of
neuraminidase (i.e. competitive
inhibition), Relenza inhibits the
spread of infection
3
21. Old methods in drug development
include:
A. active molecules from biological
sources such as bacteria, fungi,
plants, etc.
B. seem to inhibit a target biological
function or specific enzyme in
bioassays.
C. structure is solved,
D. medicinal chemists covalently
modifying the initial structure in
ways which will improve its
medicinal value
22. New methods in drug development
involve:
A. computers analyze the structure
and activity of a large number of
different molecules which inhibit
the target enzyme.
B. Quantitative Structure-Activity
Relationship studies (QSAR) where
computer predicts structure of the
"perfect" inhibitor
4
C. the active site of the target
enzyme can be constructed from
this data
23. What can be involved in
combinatorial drug development?
A. synthesise an enormous number
of randomly constructed
molecules
B. solid phase synthesis of thousands
of random peptides or nucleic
acids
C. make a large library of peptide
inhibitors by using genetic
engineering.
D. find peptides or oligonucleotides
that bind flurorescent-labeled
protein
24. DNA binding drugs can include
A. ssDNA molecules
B. Peptide-nucleic acid analogs
C. Transcription factors