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Mice on morphines - Weaken question - EXPERTS please opine

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Mice on morphines - Weaken question - EXPERTS please opine

by gmatrant » Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:45 pm
Mice that have been given morphine are very likely to develop blood poisoning because
bacteria that normally reside in the intestine typically respond to morphine by migrating
into the bloodstream. However, when mice are given both morphine and the new drug
naltrexone, blood poisoning is much less frequent, although it does still occur. These results
provide support for researchers' prediction that naltrexone will turn out to be toxic to
certain types of bacteria.

Which of the following, if discovered to be true, would
most seriously weaken the support for the researchers' prediction?

A. After being administered to mice, naltrexone does not pass from the bloodstream into the
intestine.
B. Naltrexone inhibits morphine from triggering the migration of intestinal bacteria into the
bloodstream.
C. Mice that have been given naltrexone but not morphine have no greater risk of developing
blood poisoning than do mice that have not been given either substance.
D. The increased risk of blood poisoning is not the only harmful effect on mice of being given
morphine.
E. Conditions other than the presence of intestinal bacteria in the bloodstream can cause

OA is B

Can someone explain why B is correct? Doesn't C state that Naltrexone is not harmful so thereby weakening the conclusion that naltrexone will turn out to be toxic
blood poisoning in mice
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by LalaB » Thu Feb 02, 2012 3:37 am
from the text above u can see, that the author concludes, that "naltrexone will turn out to be toxic to certain types of bacteria. "

B states, that naltrexone influences on morphine, not bacteria. naltrexone just prevents morphine to influence on bacteria.

B. Naltrexone inhibits morphine from triggering the migration of intestinal bacteria into the
bloodstream.
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by sam2304 » Thu Feb 02, 2012 4:26 am
Morphine -> Causes blood poisoning -> Morphine + Naltrexone -> Blood poisoning reduced. So naltroexone is toxic to certain bacteria.

You have misunderstood the argument. C states that naltrexone doesn't cause blood poisoning. The blood poisoning level is same after giving naltroxene without morphine as it is without giving neither. This is irrelevant to this argument. Its similar to giving medicine to common cold to a person who doesn't have cold and asserting that the medicine works.

Weakening is when we prove that naltroexone is not toxic to bacteria. Only B does that by providing alternate reason that it is not reducing blood poisoning by killing bacteria but by preventing it from moving into the blood stream hence not toxic :)
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by [email protected] » Sun Feb 12, 2012 1:07 am
Honestly Sam i did understand the OA as B but I am still not understanding the option C. I feel that it is weakening the argument. See this is what i got from the argument:


Morphine causes intestinal bacteria to reside from the intestine into the bloodstream which
causes blood poisoning.


Morphine with Nalteroxone reduces the blood poisoning.

Hence the researchers conclude that naltrexone will turn out to be toxic to
certain types of bacteria.




Option B says that Naltrexone stops the morphine from letting the intestinal bacteria to get into the bloodstream and hence reduces the blood poisoning level.
That means the Nalteroxone has no effect on the bacteria.

I feel option C does the same thing i.e it does not affect the bacteria. So could you please help in understanding this statement......


Stuck with option C.
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by sam2304 » Sun Feb 12, 2012 7:16 pm
C. Mice that have been given naltrexone but not morphine have no greater risk of developing blood poisoning than do mice that have not been given either substance.

The argument says bacteria in intestine respond to morphine by migrating to boodstream causing blood poisoning. The source for blood poisoning is Morphine which triggers bacteria to blood stream.

C states that Mice have been given naltrexone without morphine. So the triggering event is not going to happen and how can we say naltrexone is poisonous to bacteria without bacteria movement. There is no effect of naltrexone in the blood stream without morphine. Hope this helps !! If you are still not convinced or clear, let me know :)
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