CASE 5:  A 7-year-old boy is taken to the emergency room by his mother after she finds him unresponsive in his bed. She states that her son was sent home from school 3 days earlier after showing flu-like symptoms. He awoke the next morning with body aches, a cough, a sore throat, and a runny nose. After 2 days of taking over-the-counter children’s cold medicine, he had not improved. Upon arriving at the hospital, he is dehydrated, pale, and shaky. The physician notes that he is wheezing and has slight difficulty breathing. A chest X-ray indicates pneumonia of the right lung, which is subsequently determined to be viral. The physician prescribes Tamiflu to help the patient. Tamiflu is a neuramindase inhibitor and helps the body by ____.

CASE 1:  A 40-year-old hospital patient begins complaining of painful urination. She had been admitted to the hospital three days prior for a surgical procedure that required the use of a catheter. A urine specimen is collected and analyzed. Pink cells in the Gram stain suggest that the pathogen is E. coli. Blood tests suggest that the patient has elevated levels of activated complement proteins. Given the diagnosis, what may be causing the complement activation?

All of the following are benefits of using phage therapy instead of antibiotics to treat bacterial infections EXCEPT:

Which of the following mutatgens creates thymine dimers?

Both Enterobius and Dirofilaria would be classified as _____.

Which chemical signal secreted by a macrophage ‘selects’ a helper T cell to begin cloning itself during an adaptive immune response?

All of the following are true about the LAC operon EXCEPT:

CASE 2: Mrs. Smith, a 62-year-old housewife, is admitted to the hospital with nausea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps that have become severe. Mrs. Smith’s daughter states that her mother was complaining of blurred vision and difficulty swallowing when they were having lunch. Upon assessment, the nurse observes drooping of the patientês eyelids and facial muscles on both sides of her face. Vital signs are stable with blood pressure at 126/84, pulse at 82, and temperature 98.3°F. However, her respirations are 10 (normal is 18-20). The physician on-call performs a neurological test that shows deficits on both sides of the body. The doctor orders blood work and asks the daughter what Mrs. Smith had eaten in the last few days. The daughter advises the doctor that Mrs. Smith cans her own vegetables and had eaten from one of the jars. Mrs. Smith begins to have weakness in her arms and legs. Paralysis starts developing in her upper extremities, and soon after she stops breathing. She is placed on a ventilator. Microscopic examination reveals Gram (+) rods. The blood work comes back positive for botulism toxin. Bacterial contamination can occur during food preparation if aseptic technique is not properly used. Suppose 10,000 bacteria cells were introduced into a pasta salad during preparation. The salad then sat at room temperature for four hours. Using the growth rate equation and a generation time of 30 minutes, how many bacteria would be present in the salad at the end of the four hours?

The antibiotic tetracycline binds to messenger RNA in a bacterial ribosome, which inhibits the binding of tRNAs. The antibiotic Streptomycin binds to the ribosome itself and prevents messenger RNA from entering it. Clearly, both of these antibiotics kill bacteria by directly blocking the process of _____.

CASE 2:  An 80-year-old male is transferred from a nursing home to the hospital because of a severe lower respiratory infection. He is experiencing chest pain, chills, fever, and shortness of breath. He has a productive cough (meaning that he is coughing up sputum). A Gram stain of the sputum reveals numerous short chains of purple cells. The Gram stain results suggest that the organism may be _____.