This article observes and expands upon how technology and certain techniques have allowed us to look at cancer treatment in a whole new light. Cancer is very difficult to treat due to the heterogeneity of the actual cancer cells. Cellular heterogeneity can be the result of a multitude of things, including mutation, gene regulation, and environmental factors. But as technology advances, so does the field of single-cell analysis, which uses genomics and medicine to improve upon treatment. Originally single-cell technologies such as flow cytometry and RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) were limited in what they could actually provide due the amount of genes that could be observed and profiled, but things have drastically changed. Whole-genomic amplification (WGA) allows a small amount of nucleic acid material to reach a threshold and thus be amplified. PCR techniques (such as GenomePlex PCR), multiple displacement amplification, multiple anneal and looping- based cycles have benefited greatly from WGA. With these techniques we can now find point mutation, copy number profiling in cancer cells, and detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms and copy-number variations. Single cell genomics can be viewed via transcriptomic/genomic/proteomic analysis also. In these techniques mRNA is a key component to understanding …show more content…
The article explains that both data and visual analysis can be very difficult at times. This is due to the amount of raw data received and how we can actually use and quantify it into actual data and models. Issues like technical variations, high dimensionality, and non-linear relationships have been met with technologies looking to surpass them. Single-cell latent model (scLVM), t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t- SNE) method, and many others advances have helped solve these issues and open up doors in the biomedical field of
The concept of tumor heterogeneity being related to the course of the disease and clinical outcome in cancer patients draws additional attention in the era of personalized medicine (1). Current cancer treatment strategies are based on the site of origin of the primary tumor. However, it was shown that tumors developed from distinct cell types differ in their prognosis and response to cytotoxic therapies (2...
The main goal for our experiment was to learn how to examine DNA when there is only a small
In order to do this a polymer of DNA “unzips” into its two strands, a coding strand (left strand) and a template strand (right strand). Nucleotides of a molecule known as mRNA (messenger RNA) then temporarily bonds to the template strand and join together in the same way as nucleotides of DNA. Messenger RNA has a similar structure to that of DNA only it is single stranded. Like DNA, mRNA is made up of nucleotides again consisting of a phosphate, a sugar, and an organic nitrogenous base. However, unlike in DNA, the sugar in a nucleotide of mRNA is different (Ribose) and the nitrogenous base Thymine is replaced by a new base found in RNA known as Uracil (U)3b and like Thymine can only bond to its complimentary base Adenine. As a result of how it bonds to the DNA’s template strand, the mRNA strand formed is almost identical to the coding strand of DNA apart from these
The cancer stem cell theory hypothesizes that tumors or cancers arise from mutations or epigenetic changes in normal stem cells. These mutated or genetically altered stem cells possess the properties of the normal stem cells such as the ability to self-renew, differentiate into any type of body cell, and resist apoptosis. Hence, the cancer stem cells (CSC) are named so. It is also suggested that because of the above-mentioned properties of the cancer stem cells, the current anti-cancer therapies are not entirely successful (Gil et al, 2008). Despite surgery and other therapies, even if very few of these cancer stem cells survive, they can continue to act as a source for more tumors, even though the therapies eliminate all visible signs of cancer.
Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a frequently used method to observe expression levels of RNA (10). Using RT-PCR one is capable of identifying a predetermined gene (vangl2) via complementary Deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) (9). RT-PCR can then be used to clone the targeted gene by reverse transcribing its cDNA through the enzyme reverse transcriptase (10).
I have chosen to write about the constellation Cancer (The Crab). I chose Cancer because it is one of only a handful of constellations that I am actually able to identify in the night sky. Cancer is one of the twelve Zodiac constellations; people whose birthdays fall between June 21st and July 22nd have Cancer as their sign. Cancer is the Latin word for crab, and despite the fact that the constellation looks more like a lobster then a crab, it is still referred to as a crab. The constellation is visible from the northern hemisphere from late winter to early spring.
Cancer has been an active concern in our society for the past couple decades, since we truly discovered the nature of cancer and the potency it brings along with it. However, it was not until the mid-20th century that scientists were beginning to truly understand the origin of cancer. Scientists dating back all the way to the Renaissance, when they first began performing autopsies to learn more about the human body and form, noticed abnormalities but it never clicked that it was something much worse than it seemed. Research has continued since then, and it has continued to thrive even to this day. When James Watson and Francis Crick discovered DNA and it’s chemical structure in 1962, it opened up doors that even they could not expect. With the understanding of DNA and how it affected the way we look at life, came the beginning of the understanding of mutated DNA (which is a cause of the growth of cancerous cells). In this past century, researching scientists discovered that cancer is linked with the DNA that resides in a cell’s nucleus. By ways of damage to the cells via chemicals or radiation, or even introduction of a new DNA, the cancerous cells begin to form and duplicate. We are learning more and more about cancer and how to fight it, but we still have much more to learn.
The skin is the largest organ in the body, covering the bones and internal organs, protecting them from injuries, it serves as a barrier to germs, and bacteria and helps to prevent fluid loss. The skin helps to control the body’s temperature and also aids in removing certain body wastes, therefore making it a vital organ just as any other organ such as the heart or brain.
“The word 'leukemia' is a very frightening word. In many instances, it's a killer and it's something that you have to deal with in a very serious and determined way if you're going to beat it” - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Many people, including tons of children, fight leukemia every day trying to beat this vicious cancer. Without knowing how leukemia is exactly caused, it puts a damper on how to avoid it.
The Phase I trial will be discussed here as it pertains to the topic at hand. The typical treatment for cervical cancer if surgery is not a viable option – like if the cancer has spread, then called locally advanced cervical cancer – is chemotherapy and radiation treatment at the same time. This phase I clinical trial is simply looking to add ipilimumab to this regimen, but once the chemo/radiation has been completed (LACC article). Chemo and radiation destroy tumor cells, which causes tumor-associated antigens to be released. Once released, these antigens are exogenous (outside the cell) and will be presented to helper T cells to initiate an immune response.
There have been extraordinary progresses in identifying cancer at the cellular level and the question of how cancer cells develop are no longer a secret. Although there are many different types of cancer and almost every tissue can turn into malignancies, the basic processes of how cancer arises are very similar. While normal body cells follow the orderly path of cell cycle and only reproduce when instructed to do so, cancer cells violate the schedule and ignore instructions, it fails to follow the orderly enzymatic reaction which is responsible for the deletion of cells with damaged DNA (Kerr et al. 1994). Cancer cells enter cell cycle repeatedly until it will eventually disrupt the function of tissues and organs that are essential to the organism (Weinberg 1996). Not all types of cancer are fatal, benign cancer is a type of cancer which stays in one location only, in another word it will not m...
Leukemia is a cancer of the white blood cells. It begins in the bone marrow, the soft tissue inside the bones. Within the bone marrow is where white blood cells are created, that help fight off bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms within the body that cause infections. The disease develops to when the white blood cells are being produced out of control. The cells that are being produced do not work properly as they should, they grow faster than a normal cell would and don’t know when to stop growing. Overtime, if not treated properly, the white blood cells will over crowd blood cells, creating a serious problem such as anemia, bleeding and infection. Leukemia cells can spread to the lymph nodes and other organs in the body causing swelling and pain.
Cancer develops when cells in a part of the body begin to grow out of
According to Rubin et. al (2015), stated that the nature of cancer control is changing with an increasing emphasis on prevention, early diagnosis, and patient experience during and after treatment. Primary care is defined by World Health Organization (WHO) as the first-contact, accessible, continued, comprehensive and coordinated care. Secondary care are likely to prompt referral or further investigation and management. Finally, tertiary care likely to represent malignancy, and need rapid work-up and referral such as abdominal mass.
By using Messenger RNA- mRNA molecules carrying the code for insulin are common in the cytoplasm of insulin. Or using DNA probes to find the gene required-A probe is a short single strand of DNA carrying the known genetic code we are looking for. So the location of the DNA probe is known, it is labelled with a radioactive fluorescent marker. The aim is for the probe to attach to its complementary base sequence within DNA extracted from human cells.