Biology News Net, "How ionizing radiation damages DNA and causes cancer."
In this article DR Peter Campbell, who lead the study, was trying to find how and if radiation could cause cancer. Him and the others at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute found two "Fingerprints" of how the ionizing radiation damages the DNA. Firstly, and in my opinion the most frightening, is whats called a balanced inversion. this is where two points in the DNA are cut and then, as if on a pivot, it rotates 180 degrees and reattaches. The second is deletion, where a small number of DNA bases are cut out entirely.
The balanced inversion changes the order of what's read as the RNA transcribes the DNA. with this change it can change what the protein turns out to be, or even terminate it prematurely. A deletion of one of those nitrogenous bases would change the reading frame of the RNA, essentially doing the same thing; changing the outcome of the proteins and/or terminating it before it reaches what it was supposed to be.
I found this article quite interesting because this knowledge will change how some cancers are treated in the future. I have an aunt who passed away this year after a 7 year battle against cancer. she was originally given a year to live, and she fought it for 7 before it finally took her. I would hope that this new advancement in the field of cancer research, and many more as they continue to study, will eventually lead to a cure, and better ways to help treat the cancers without inadvertently causing more damage.
D. Austin Kropushek
What kind of effect do you think radiation from microwaves and x-ray scanners in airports have on the body?
ReplyDelete-S.R
Microwaves and x-rays are a type of light. In my chemistry class, we briefly learned about the effect of light on the body. Each light type (microwave, X-ray, UV, visible light, etc.) has a specific wave length, or wave length range, associated to it. The wave length is dependent on the distant between the two crests (the high points of the wave) or the two troughs (the low points of the wave). Frequency (how many times the wave goes up in down in an allotted amount of time) of a wave is what really determines the damage done to the human body and not so much the amplitude (or how high or low the wave length reaches) of the wave. Microwaves have a longer wavelength than the visible light does, so the frequency of it is relatively low. The wave length distance of a microwave is approximately 10e-2 m long, compared to the 10e-6 of visible light. Because the frequency is so low, there is relatively no damage done to the body due to microwaves. X-rays, however, have a much smaller wave length, which means it has a much higher frequency. The average wave length of an X-ray is about 10e-10, much smaller than that of even ultraviolet light (which is what causes sun burns). If seldom exposed to the body, X-rays don't have much of an effect on the body because the body can heal the damage done with no problem. If exposed frequently to X-rays, the body is much more susceptible to develop cancer.
Delete-W.K.
I think this is a very interesting article, in several ways but especially that we can apply everything this article is indicating into thinks we have been learning in class. Also i find it interesting how the radiation is effecting DNA by causing a Balance Inversion" that i imagine could completely cause DNA to produced many problem. And overall i think its incredible that Ionizing radiation can cause so many changes and mutations in DNA and the protein synthesis processes.
ReplyDeleteOverall id say this is a very interesting article and that it makes me want to understand how radiation effects our DNA and if it could eve be used in a helpful way.
-Jacob C
How much radiation do you think you need to be exposed to to develop cancer? C.W.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on what kind of radiation you are exposed to. Studies have shown that when you are exposed to large levels of radiation, such as gamma rays, you do have an increased risk of getting cancer. If you are experiencing low levels of radiation, such as those living in high altitudes, studies have shown no increase in the risk of getting cancer. So it takes a lot of dangerous radiation to increase the development of getting cancer. -EH
DeleteThe threshold at which radiation becomes cancerous would be a little hard to test in humans because of ethical reasons. Obviously you could use a model organism, but I think there are lots of real life examples that show how careful you must be when handling radiation. Rosalind Franklin, who pioneered x-ray crystallagraphy images of DNA itself ended up dying of cancer because of her exposure to x-rays. When we go to the dentist, they put that protective covering over our body before x-ray imaging our teeth. Before we go to the beach we often have to use sunscreen to avoid the dangers of ultraviolet radiation. In short, even something less dangerous than gamma rays, an ultraviolet ray, or an x-ray, can be lethal if proper precautions are not taken. -GMB
DeleteCan radiation be directly correlated to cancer or is it a indirect correlation?
DeleteSkyler H.
Does this have anything to do with the plasmid recombination thing that we talked about earlier in the semester? B.C.
ReplyDeleteI knew that radiation could potentially cause cancer. I feel like that is common knowledge. However, maybe I'm stupid but for some reason I didn't really know that it damaged DNA. And i definitely didn't know how it damaged the DNA. Interested read, thanks! -Chad B
ReplyDeleteI personally think this is great that they figured out one of the unknowns. Like what someone mentioned, we all have learned that radiation causes cancer, but we didn't know how. We know a lot of things, but we don't know the whys or hows, and for them to figure this out especially because it has to do with Cancer, its awesome!
ReplyDelete-A.g
The way that cancer effects DNA is terrifying. I am curious if there is a way that we could cure a balanced inversion. Would it be possible to create a drug that splices the DNA of cancer cells and undoes the inversion. I think this would be a less dangerous alternative to Chemo. - T Anderson
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy to think that we want to cure cancer by creating more of it, cancer is originally the damage in DNA being read wrong or having mutations and many other things so why would we want to damage DNA even more. There is still lots of research that needs to be done on cancer and more cures to solve this problem.
ReplyDeleteSteph S.
I kind of feel the same. the way medicine works now a days is all about money. so in order to keep profits they have to keep some kind of sickness. meaning to cure cancer by creating another form. loved your insight! sb
DeleteThe information in this article was very startling to read. Cancer has stricken fear into the hearts of millions of victims and family members worldwide. It is shocking to see that something that is supposed to remove cancer is actually causing a lot of damage.
ReplyDelete--A.S.
I love that I was able to understand your blog post because of what we have learned in class! DNA is sensitive and even being exposed to the sun for way too long can cause damage to the DNA so it does not surprise me that cancer affects our DNA! I am glad we are finding safer ways to treat cancer than chemo.
ReplyDelete-B.N.K.
This article seems like an interesting read. I found it interesting that cancer can be caused by a balanced inversion. I know about the deletion but I did not know about this one.
ReplyDelete-EH