FL5 B/B Q22: Can someone explain to me why option C can't be correct? Rationale below.

Olivia_Lucchese
Olivia_Lucchese Posts: 1

MCAT Student

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edited February 24 in Pre-Med Success Community
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During the B/B section under FL5, I flagged this question and would appreciate if someone could explain why C can't be the correct answer to the provided question stem. Diminished immune response by the innate immune system would be compensated for by a greater response by the adaptive immune system, which includes antibody response.

I would understand if the question was worded in such a way to ask for the "first" or "most direct" expected response, but it didn't and now I'm perturbed lol. Am I crazy? 🤕 TIA!

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Answers

  • sfallon
    sfallon Posts: 45

    Moderator

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    Thanks for asking! So we can't know for sure that the antibody response would go up, since the antibody response is not part of the innate immune system. Since the mechanisms are separate, we can't just assume adaptive will go up if innate goes down. Now, if the passage presented research that came to that conclusion, then answer C would work, but since we aren't told that we can't assume it. Also, answer C would work if it said that the antibody response would have more work to complete as the innate response is partially compromised. But we can't know that this additional work would be accomplished by increasing the antibody response. It could also just take longer for the mice to fight off the infection with the same level of antibodies as wild-type mice.

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