Pro Oncogenes

Cancer is a genetic disease caused by certain changes to genes that control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide. Genes carry the instructions to make proteins, which do much of the work in our cells. Certain gene changes can cause cells to evade normal growth controls and become cancer. Genetic changes that promote cancer can be inherited from our parents if the changes are present in germ cells, which are the reproductive cells of the body (eggs and sperm). Such changes, called germline changes, are found in every cell of the offspring. In general, cancer cells have more genetic changes than normal cells. But each person’s cancer has a unique combination of genetic alterations.

Heredity also plays a role in the development of cancer. If a person’s relatives have a history of cancer, then that person has a higher risk of developing cancer. Genetic variations, particularly those influencing how the body responds to carcinogens, may create a greater vulnerability to cancer.

Cancer is defined as a disease caused by an uncontrollable division of abnormal cells in a part of the body. Cancer can be caused by many variables in one’s environment and the variables that are more likely to cause cancer are often referred to carcinogens. Carcinogens are harmful factors that can increase one’s chance of developing a form of cancer. Carcinogens can be anything from ultra violet rays to dust particles from wood; tobacco is one of the most well-known carcinogens because it increases one’s chances of developing lung cancer by a stagger amount. The reason tobacco has the ability to make such an impact is because tobacco contains more than 70 carcinogens altogether. When it comes down to it, the carcinogens are all working together

Lung cancer can be caused by multiple factors and many factors can work together to cause someone to have lung cancer. Besides smoking, radon, secondhand smoke, the environment and someone’s occupation can all cause lung cancer. As we already know smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer cases worldwide and over forty-three million people just in the United States smoke cigarettes. There are more than fifty chemicals in tobacco smoke that are ingested each time someone smokes. Some of these chemicals include benzene (which can be found in pesticides and gasoline), Formaldehyde (which preserve dead bodies), pesticides (which are found on lawns and gardens) and Tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines (Martin, 2012). When a person inhales the chemicals in cigarettes, they inhale thousands of poisons, toxic metals, and

Subsequently, each cell that develops from the fertilized egg will receive this mutated gene. He states that for a cancer to manifest, two mutations must occurs. In hereditary cancers, the person inherit one mutant gene. The second mutation occurs as result of a mitotic error during the many cell division that occurs in the person's lifetime. In sporadic cases both mutation occur in the person's lifetime. In sporadic cases both mutation occurs after fertilization an are acquired much later in life. From this Kudson conclude that hereditary cancers manifest at younger age and there is a higher incidence of multiple tumors, where sporadic cancers occur late in the life and usually only a single tumor occurs. The principal causes of cancer appears to be environmental agents. A good example of this is skin cancer. The condition has increased among fair skinned people who expose themselves to too much sunshine, while being very uncommon among dark skinned races (knudson 1971, cited in Ormiston, 1995). Therefore, most genetic alteration are acquired through our life time from environmental carcinogens with only a small percentage been inherited. However, inherited cancers are very important as it appears that the genes responsible for, hereditary cancer maybe the same as those involved in sporadic malignancies.

· Be able to describe how antibiotic resistant genes are able to transfer, and identify the transformed cells that are antibiotic resistant

While there are several biological factors that have the ability to lead to cancer, genetics is the most currently researched. A study done by Bharaj, Scorilas, Giai and

So if a bacterium has a gene resistant to Penicillin dies and another bacterium picks up that gene, now the bacterium that is alive is resistant to Penicillin. This allows the bacteria that die to still have an influence in the colony. The second method is called transduction or the passing of virus. Since virus are just pieces of DNA or RNA they can latch onto genes from one bacterium and then transfer them to another bacterium thus giving more bacteria that gene that may be resistant to a specific antibiotic such as penicillin. The final method is called conjugation which allows bacteria to create a gene transferring connection with each other and when they break apart both bacteria can gain genes from each other allowing them to be resistant to possibly two antibiotics. Horizontal gene transfer is bacteria biggest weapon against everything we throw at them. So the question is can we evolve our own weapons, antibiotics, fast enough to counter these methods bacteria use to survive (Hobley,

For one, family genetics can be a cause of stomach cancer, making a person's cells more predisposed to mutate. A person with a family history of gastric cancer is 2 - 3 times more likely to be afflicted with the cancer than a person with a clean family history. Risky habits can also cause an increased the chances of having gastric cancer. For example, a smoker is more prone to stomach cancer than a nonsmoker. ("Stomach cancer," 2012) Tobacco smoke, in particular, is apt to cause cancer due to the 69 carcinogenic chemicals within it ("Harms of Smoking," 2011). Another habit that raises a person's chance of having gastric cancer is frequent, excessive consumption of alcohol ("Stomach Cancer," 2012). Though alcohol in itself does not cause cancer, when the body metabolizes alcohol, the body produces acetaldehyde, a cancer-causing agent. In addition to risky habits, certain dietary choices lead to an increased risk of stomach cancer. For example, intaking "salty, smoked, or nitrate-preserved" foods may give rise to gastric cancer in some people ("Stomach Cancer," 2012). The salty foods are a risk factor because too much salt can damage the stomach's lining, making the stomach more vulnerable to malfunctions in its cells ("Recommendations for Cancer," n.d.). Smoked foods can cause stomach cancer because they produce heterocyclic amines and

Bacteria can be a scary thing, but some people do not even know what bacteria is but doctors have created antibiotics to destroy it. “Many people are unaware what bacteria are and how antibiotics control them.”(Voss, Bristol) Basically bacteria a large group of unicellular microorganisms that have cell walls but lack organelles and an organized nucleus, including some that can cause disease. Antibiotics are used to destroy bacteria, but if a person is prescribed too many antibiotics they may become immune to antibiotics forever and have to live without a strong immune system. Antibiotics attacks bacteria by preventing it from building a wall to defend itself from the body's immune system. So the body’s immune system can easily kill the bacteria.

The acquisition of antibiotic resistance comes from horizontal gene transfer. Horizontal gene transfer refers to transferring of genes to an organism during that organisms life and not during reproduction. This acquisition comes from transduction, transformation and conjugation

Antibiotics are medicines that are used to treat bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance means that an antibiotic is no longer effective in treating an infection. Resistance can develop if you use antibiotics the wrong way.

One of theses being air pollution. Though this is rather uncommon, breathing polluted air can and does increase the probability of acquiring lung cancer. Because this is not near as direct as smoking, the chance of getting cancer is far less. Being in a highly polluted area for a long period of time affects the body in a similar way as passive smoking would.

In this last situation, resistant genes become embedded in small units of DNA, called transpons, which can easily move into other DNA molecules. Making matters worse, many bacteria have specialized transpons called integrons, which act like flypaper when catching new genes (3).

Microbiologists believe that Mycobacterium tuberculosis becomes antibiotic resistant when it exchanges genes with other already resistant bacteria because bacteria mutate and spread rapidly within hours. There are three forms of gene mutations categorized as conjugation, transformation, and transduction. Conjugation permits the transfer of DNA from one cell to another whereas transformation occurs when a cell decays. While its cell wall falls apart, the inner genetic makeup becomes available to other