Emma Salvo
Honors Chemistry
October 18, 2017
Rough Draft: The Chemistry of Cancer
Introduction According to the National Institutes of Health, in 2016 more than 595,000 people died from cancer, and the US is projected to spend more than $150 billion in the treatment of cancer by 2020 (“Cancer Statistics”). Many of us know a friend or loved one who was killed by a form of cancer, and we may know someone fighting the disease right at this very moment. For this project, I wanted to look at the chemical reasons for why cancer forms, how it grows in the human body, and what can be done to stop it. While scientists are still learning about cancer and its effects, there is a lot of scientific evidence that points to free radicals as one of the
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The result is what we call a free radical cascade, an enormous chain reaction of free radicals that quickly wreaks havoc on living tissue” (Howard). Because of the constant loss of one electron, the organic molecules affected by the free radical are being oxidized. This has caused scientists to refer to the process as “oxidative stress” (Nimse and Pal).
However, in other cases, enormous molecules can be created as the oxygen molecule takes an electron from a nearby hydrocarbon. It glues itself to the original molecule and leaves the end of that original molecule one electron short. For example, the following reaction shows what happens when an organic peroxide comes into contact with ethylene. Asterisks show an unpaired electron.
R-O-O-R → R-O* + *O-R
R-O* + H2C=CH2→ RO-CH2-CH2*
RO-CH2-CH2* + H2C=CH2 → RO-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2*
(Atteya)
As the reactions show, the unpaired electron chops the double bond between the carbon atoms in ethylene, turning it into longer and longer free radicals.
Free Radicals and Cancer
Free radicals can cause cancerous tumors when they form longer and longer free radicals in one location (Atteya), causing the proteins and other compounds the body naturally produced to become transformed into larger and more complicated organic compounds that the body doesn’t know what to do with. Dr. Atteya refers to this as “localized” cancer.
However, free radicals
In women, one of the most common cancers of course is breast cancer, in men prostate cancer and in men and women, lung cancer and colon cancer are common cancers. It is important to understand that the cancer that occurs in one individual is very different from the cancer that occurs in another. Everyone is different; a lung tumor in one person will be different from a lung tumor in another person. Once a diagnosis of cancer is made, the next obvious question is what do you do? There are several things that are really relevant, for example, the stage of the cancer which is information about where is the cancer?
New research shows that free radicals may be to blame. Cells that break down food to make molecular fuel for a growing organism, also generate energy during this process. This process of generating energy, can also cause cell damaging and cancer causing free radicals The more energy an organism produces, the more free radicals there will
For example, molecules with projecting Hydrogen atoms bond with molecules with projecting Hydroxyl groups (-OH), forming water. The water molecule then leaves the reactants, allowing them to bond to form a larger, more complex molecule.
It readily "splits open" leaving a single C-C bond, and creating 2 new bond positions for other atoms/groups to attach to the molecule
Throughout life, many individuals experience difficulties due to growing up in everyday life. While going in depth of the human life, it is discovered that there are many diseases and disorders that affect humans’ everyday functions. A very popular disease that has traumatically affected the human body is cancer. Cancer is a disease that spreads throughout your body in many ways. The purpose of cancer is to attach to a blood cell in your body and cause a plague within itself, causing the body to initially shut down and die. This disease contains many forms and have many causes to it. However its main goal is to destroy the human body.
With all living organisms, a process known as cell respiration is integral in order to provide the body with an essential form of energy, adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Oxygen, although an essential part of this process, can form reactants from colliding with electrons associated with carrier molecules. (pb101.rcsb.org, 2017). Hydrogen peroxide is an integral product of this reaction but is known to impose negative effects on the body if high levels are introduced. Explicitly, this reaction is caused “If oxygen runs into (one of these) carrier molecules, the electron may be accidentally transferred to it. This converts oxygen into dangerous compounds such as superoxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide, which can attack the delicate sulphur atoms and metal ions in proteins.” (pdbh101.rcb.org, 2017). Research has suggested that the hydrogen peroxide can be converted into hydroxyl radicals, known to mutate DNA, which can potentially cause bodily harm due to DNA’s role in the synthesis of proteins. These radicals can cause detrimental effects on the human body, and studies have suggested a link to ageing. Due to the harmful effects of these H2o2, it is important that the body finds a way to dispose of hydrogen peroxide before concentrations are too great.
Document A is mainly about how people are getting cancer and it also shows the rate of people that getting cancer and the number of rates that dying from cancer. Document B is mainly about whats causes cancer and things that can cause cancer would be food, drink, habit such as smoking tobacco and basking in the sun Document C. mainly talks about how you can prevent from getting cancer id by making sure proto oncogenes dont turn on by keep a healthy growth. Document D mainly talks about how employees who are accidentally or chronically exposed to carcinogenic agents are at risk of developing cancer Documents E is mainly talking about how when normal cells get turned into cancer some of the protons would change. Document F shows how the immune
It’s important to understand that it takes energy to break bonds and that energy is released when bonds are formed.
Within the Brugge Lab, we have investigated the role of various metabolic pathways in cancer including the role of antioxidants within the tumor cell. Although antioxidants were previously believed to scavenge harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS) and provide a protective benefit against cancer, clinical trials have demonstrated that supplementation with antioxidants actually increased prostate cancer incidence among healthy patients. I joined a postdoctoral fellow in the lab to determine whether depletion of glutathione, the major antioxidant within the cell, would put the cell in a sensitive state that made it vulnerable to inhibition of other major pathways. Through our screening effects, we discovered that triple negative breast cancer cells become exquisitely sensitive to treatment with inhibitors of deubiquitinating enzymes through an induction of a proteotoxic stress response. I look forward to sharing these findings with the scientific community as second author on the manuscript currently in preparation.
If someone’s mitochondria produces superoxide in the electron transport chain, this can cause a dismutation (an unproportionate reaction) into hydrogen peroxide and from there to a hydroxyl free-radical. These radicals basically call for early-onset aging of cells and slow cell turnover. Free radicals have the ability to damage the cell’s DNA, lipids and proteins which has the potential to attack the body’s state of homeostasis. So basically any of the aforementioned factors acts like a several front war on the brain. Other “internally generated sources of free radicals include: Xanthine oxidase, Peroxisomes, inflammation, Phagocytosis, Arachidonate pathways, exercise, and Ischemia/reperfusion injury”. “Some externally generated sources of free radicals are: cigarette smoke, environmental pollutants, radiation, certain drugs, pesticides, industrial solvents, and
The early theories of cancer and its origin were different between each other throughout the history.
The two carbon molecule bonds four carbon molecule called oxaloacete forming a carbon molecule knew as citrate. The second step reaction is classified as oxidation/reductions reactions. This process is formed by two molecule of CO2 and one molecule of ATP. The cycle electrons reduce NAD and FAD, which join the H+ ions to form NADH and FADH2, this result to an extra NADH being formed during the transition. In the mitochondrion, four molecules of NADH and one molecule of FADH2 are produced for each molecule of pyruvate, two molecules of pyruyate enter the matrix for each molecule of oxidized glucose, as a result of these eight molecules of NADH+ two molecules are produced. Six molecules of NADH+, molecules of FADH2 and two molecules of ATP synthesize itself in Krebs cycle. As a result, no oxygen is used in the described reactions. During chimiosmosis, oxygen only plays a role in oxidative phosphorylation. The next step is the electron transport; the electrons are stored on NADH and FADH2 and are used to produce ATP. Electron transport chain is essential to make most ATP produced in cellular respiration. The NADH and FAD2 from the Krebs cycle drop their electrons at the beginning of the transport chain. When the electrons move along the electron transport chain, it gives power to pump the hydrogen along the membrane from the matrix into the intermediate space. This process forms a gradient concentration forcing the hydrogen through ATP syntheses attaching
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide as it can develop in almost any organ or tissue. Significant advances in understanding the cellular basis of cancer and the underlying biological mechanisms of tumour has been vastly improved in the recent years (Jiang et al. 1994). Cancer is a genetic disease which requires a series of mutation during mitosis to develop, its characteristics can be associated with their ability to grow and divide abnormal cells uncontrollable while in the mean time invade and cause nearby blood vessels to serve its need. Even though many people are affected by cancer today, the abilities which cancer cells have make it hard to find a single effective treatment for cancer. The focus of research now lies
Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with approximately 14 million new cases in 2012.2 The amount of new cases is expected to rise by about 70% over the next 2 decades. Cancer which causes nearly 1 in 6 deaths, is the second leading cause of death globally, and was responsible for 8.8 million deaths in 2015. Approximately 70% of deaths from cancer occur in low- and middle-income countries. In 2012 about 14.1 million new cases of cancer occurred globally (not including skin cancer other than melanoma).3 The most common types of cancer in males are lung cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer and stomach cancer.
Then, a shift is observed by one of the atoms to the carbocation. And finally, to stabilize the molecule, catalyst is then regenerated to yield the final product.