Scientific Article June 2014 COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Try to answer the following questions from the material in the article. The numbers in brackets refer to the number of information points you should try to include in your answer. 1) To what does the obstruction in COPD refer? (1) 2) What are the typical symptoms of COPD? (3) 3) Draw a flowchart to describe the development of COPD in a smoker and how the symptoms described previously result. (10) 4) Para 6: Describe the inflammatory response? What is its primary function? (5) 5) What is the evidence for COPD being a) caused by the environment and b) a genetic condition? (2) 6) What information about a patient (not their family) might lead to the conclusion that their COPD had a genetic origin? (1) 7) Para 11: Describe the process of A1AT protein production in liver cells (2 basic answer; 7 better answer) 8) Para 11: How might A1AT act as a serine protease inhibitor? (3) 9) Para 11: From the description of the action of elastase, describe and explain what you think one of the symptoms of emphysema may be and why. (4) 10) Para 12: what might be the possible effects of a mutation in the gene for the A1AT glycoprotein? (2) 11) Para 13: Explain how a mutation in the A1AT gene could lead to normal levels of the protein, but with a changed configuration? (4) 12) Para 14: Would you expect to see a difference in the % incidence of A1AT deficiency between males and females? Why? (2) 13) Para 14: What does the phrase homozygous Pi MM mean? (2) 14) Para 15: Describe what it means to be a carrier of a disease (2) 15) Draw a genetic diagram to show the offspring from two parents who were heterozygous for the M and Z alleles. What is the probability that they would have a child who would develop clinically significant disease? (6)