Enzymes can be considered as the machines that carry out the majority of the chemical reactions that take place inside our body. These unique enzymes provide the work that is being done inside the cells. For over a century, scientist have been studying and experimenting with these proteins. Enzymes can be associated with a number of different things that take place in the body. For example, an enzyme can be the root to cancer cells. Researching about these highly chemically reactant enzymes has led to the discovery of a fairly new enzyme called Telomerase. Telomerase is an enzyme that is associated with the addition of nucleotides to telomerase (Yu-Sheng Cong). This enzyme is highly known for its activity with human cells, but most importantly, …show more content…
After endless amount of research, scientist have noticed that every time a cell divides, the telomere gets shorter. If the telomere gets shorter, the cell is no longer able to divide, which then results in the termination of the cell. Scientists at the University of Utah, have associated the shortening of the telomeres with the causes of aging, deadly cancers, and higher risks of death (Richard Cawthon). Richard Cawthon, a geneticist at the University of Utah, has found that shorter telomeres are associated with shorter lives. Dr. Cawthon found that people among the ages of 60 and older that had shorter telomeres were three times more likely to die from heart disease and eight times more likely to die of infectious diseases. Research has discovered that rapidly dividing cells in tissues that are involved with telomerase cause the most defects in humans. Defects is telomerase is what causes the fatal cancers that humans tend to suffer with. Some of the areas that defected telomerase affects in human cells are tissues like skin, gut, and bone marrow (Marciniak R, Guarente L). To this day, telomerase has been discovered to be the main contributor to approximately 90% of tumor samples (Kim NW). What scientist have been trying to experiment with is, if telomerase is associated with the immortalization of cancer cells, then maybe they can make it to where the enzyme can prevent aging and even the prevention of different cancer
A reason why life expectancy is so short in the novel is because of the "Great Rebirth", the "Great Rebirth" led to a new world that doesn't have machinery or electronics. Because of this there was a lack of medicine. Life expectancy is so short in this society because there isn't any advanced medicine. They think that by cutting them open and letting them bleed the infections would go away. In fact, this would cause someone to bleed to death. This relates to us because in the beginning we didn't know much about medicine or technology, which lead to many deaths. Now, our society has greatly improved because medicine has been greatly developed and diseases that were once thought to be incurable now have a cure. Also, educa...
Progeria occurs because there is a mutation in LMNA, a gene that produces specific protein, lamin A protein, that plays an integral role in holding a cell’s nucleus together. This mutation leads to the production of progerin, a protein that causes the nucleus to be unstable. With this instability comes “the process of premature aging and disease in Progeria.(1)” The accumulation of the protein Progerin also affects telomeres, proteins that contribute to the aging process of cells and leads to telomere disfunction.
-- Contrary to some clinical studies, there is inconclusive scientific evidence to support the theory of increasing a person’s lifespan
...nescence is result of a combination of the antagonist pleiotropy theory, mutation accumulation theory and disposable soma theory. The three evolutionary theories claim that natural selection is weak and ineffective in sustaining reproduction, growth, survival and somatic repair during the post-reproductive years causing genetic diseases in older individuals compared to younger individuals. As biological processes shut down, older individuals develop a weak immune system that can no longer fight the deleterious genes and mutations leading to death. Moreover, the evolutionary theories paved way for new research in gerontology that led to the development of new genetic theories of aging. The definite cause of genetic diseases in older individuals is yet to be determined, but all theories suggest that senescence is an inevitable process that all organisms experience.
For my final project I chose to compare two works of art from ancient Mesopotamia. A visual work of art and a literary one. The visual work of art I chose was the Statuettes of Worshipers which were created around 2900 to 2350 BCE at the Square Temple at Eshnunna, a city in ancient Mesopotamia. The literary artwork I have chosen is the Epic of Gilgamesh written roughly around 2800 BCE by author or authors unknown. It was set in Uruk, another city in ancient Mesopotamia. Both of these works of art share a common theme; the theme of immortality. It is my hopes that within this paper I can accurately show how each of these works of art express this theme, and how it relates to modern society.
The 'lock and key' hypothesis explains how enzymes only work with a specific substrate. The hypothesis presents the enzyme as the 'lock, and the specific substrate as 'key'. The active site binds the substrate, forms a product, which is then released. Diagram 1- a diagram showing the 'lock and key' mechanism works
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00424-009-0728-1 Tümpel, S., & Rudolph, K. (2012). The role of telomere shortening in somatic stem cells and tissue aging: lessons from telomerase model systems. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,1266(1), 28-39. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2012.06547.x Yang, Q. (2009).
In today’s society, what was once said to be true and taken as fact regarding older people is no longer the whole story. As Laslett states, “At all times before the middle of the twentieth century and all over the globe the greater part of human life potential has been wasted, by people dying before their allotted time was up.” (1989a), and to a great extent a lot
'Telomere at senescence' A chromosome of an adult cell with the telomere labeled 'Telomere shortens after multiple replications' In 1961, Leonard Hayflick and Paul Moorhead made an astonishing discovery that human cells originating from embryonic tissues could only divide a limited number of times in culture, known as the Hayflick Limit.2 This is called cellular senescence and eventually leads to cell death. According to the National Institute of Aging (NIA),3 “DNA damage build-up occurs when a cell divides and passes its genetic information on to its two daughter cells. Telomeres shorten each time a cell divides. In most cells, the telomeres eventually reach a critical length when the cell stops proliferation and become senescent.” Due to Hayflick and Moorhead’s research, it was found that the telomeres, which are located at the ends of DNA, become shorter as...
A report recently published by the American Cancer Society stated “About 1,685,210 new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2016”. However some new studies may have found the light at the end of the tunnel, telomeres. People with dyskeratosis congenita (as described above) have 1000 fold increased risk to get oral cancer. This theory of the linkage between telomere length and cancer came around in the 90’s but only just recently became provable. In a majority of cancer it was proven that many cells had critically shorter telomere length leading to unstable chromosomes. When a cell becomes cancerous, their chromosomes become unstable and uncontrollable. The cells continue to divide until the telomere becomes very short but what differs cancer cells from healthy cells is telomerase, which will maintain the cells telomere length and prevent death. Scientist believe if they can measure telomeres length and block telomerase they can predict and stop the cancer cell growth. In a recent experiment on mice with breast cancer, scientist were able to block telomerase and stop the growth of the cancer. However it had side effects like impaired fertility, wound healing, and production of blood cells and immune system cells(Are Telomeres The Key To Aging And Cancer?). Telomerase targeting could be the answer we are searching for but additional research is needed to further establish the exact roles
Discoveries in DNA, cell biology, evolution, and biotechnology have been among the major achievements in biology over the past 200 years, with accelerated discoveries and insight’s over the last 50 years. Consider the progress we have made in these areas of human knowledge. Present at least three of the discoveries you find to be the most important and describe their significance to society, health, and the culture of modern life. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a self-replicating molecule or material present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent in chromosomes. It encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and many viruses.
Enzymes are biological macromolecule that acts as catalysts and increase the rate of a chemical reaction. Without enzymes, life, as we know about it, would not exist. Enzymes function by deceasing the activation energy and stabilizing the transition state of a chemical reaction without altering the thermodynamic of reaction (#1 Boyer). At the molecular level, enzymes catalyze these reactions by binding to the substrate or reactants to form an enzyme-substrate complex. The reaction takes place while the substrate is bound to the enzyme and converting the substrate to the new product. The new product is then released from the enzyme substrate complex, and the enzyme is then free to bind with more substrate. E+S → ES → E+P (#1 Boyer). Based on
S. Jay Olshansky, and Bruce A. Carnes . The quest for immortality science at the frontiers of aging. United States of America: W.W. Norton, 2001. Print.
When extrinsic mortality rates increase, they lower the probability of survival and cause the strength of selection to decline faster with age which increase in intrinsic morality rates with age. Age is defined as the length of time that a person has lived or a thing has existed. To age well is to maintain your physical and mental health as you grow older. Age is marked by certain stages, aging well can be considered the freedom from disease and an active engagement with life. Some lifestyle choices with respect to aging well can be exercising and dieting. Growing old does affect our hair, skin, heart, muscles and more but aging well is possible if we incorporate a healthy lifestyle. There are two mechanisms that mediate aging. They are proton leakage, and telomere damage. The proton leakage is when the growth rate and metabolic rate cause energy flow to increase. When these genes mediate energy metabolism could cause aging. The telomere is a protective cap at the end of chromosomes that are shorten with each cell division. When they deteriorate away the next cell divisions unsuccessfully duplicate the
Aging, as exhibited within the immunity theory, was described as a pre-programmed accumulation of damage, decay and decline within the function of the immune system caused by oxidative stress as a result of the Hayflick limit or biological clock (Touhy and Jett, 2012). This limit refers to the idea that aging is the result of cell and organisms containing a genetically predetermined life span (Touhy and Jett, 2012). This suggested that in relation to a cell’s proliferative instinct, aging becomes more relevant within an individual when the cells reach the limit, introducing cellular errors of imperfect proliferations that result into further damage. Furthermore, no cell within the body has seemed to be above this concept, including the B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes of the immune system. In fact, cellular errors within the immune system have been found to cultivate an autoregressive phenomenon in which normal cells are misidentified as foreign and are consequently destroyed by the body’s own immune system (Touhy and Jett, 2012). The dest...