Download Gundry Rachel Gundry Bio Lab 1615 April 3, 2012 Summary of

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Rachel Gundry
Bio Lab 1615
April 3, 2012
Summary of “Exploiting different ways to die”
This article talks about the death of cells and mutations that cell death and growth can
have. The main topic that the author discussed during the article was cancer and how it does not
allow the death of cells to occur and forms tumors in the body. In the first section of the article it
is titled Major modes of cell death, which lists the three types of cell death and describes what
and when they are used.
The first type of cell death is apoptosis, which is the controlled cell suicide. Apoptosis
helps to maintain the proper amount of cells in the body and will kill cells off that do not contain
the correct DNA or have been infected. What happens during apoptosis is the cell gets rid of
everything inside of it by using its vesicles. This happens so that the inside of cell does not enter
into other systems in the body. If the cell is infected and enters other systems it may cause other
cells to be harmed and in turn harm the body.
The second type of cell death is Autophagy. Where the cell lacks the nutrients it needs to
survive so it basically eats itself from the inside out. It does this so that it can have its
components re-used by other organelles or cells. This process is said to be controlled and a
normal part of growth of an organism. There are studies out there that say that this type of cell
suicide is used for mammals and other organisms during types of starvation and to rid cells of
damage by destroying them.
The third type of cell destruction mentioned in this article is Neocrosis. Where the cell
swells and bursts and lets all of its organelles out into other tissues. This happens when cells
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have been attacked and have damage done to the cell. Necrosis causes swelling and may help to
cure cancer if learned to be controlled. The author of this article said that this type of cell
destruction is the most unknown and scientists still have a lot to learn about this and the role it
plays in our system.
The second section in the article talks about cancer and what it is and how it happens.
Cells go through many cycles of growth, division, and destruction, all of which help to maintain
heath in an organism. When there is a mutation in the cell growth and DNA of a cell or number
of cells sometimes apoptosis and other forms of cell suicide to not happen; which means that
cells keep growing and dividing without being controlled. This will result in the formation of a
tumor and cancerous cells. The thing that makes cancer so dangerous is that they do not trigger
the “I’m touching many other cells and there is no more room to grow” response and so they
keep growing. Cancer cells also do not attach to its surrounding environment, which is very
dangerous and soon can cause cells to move around and the organism can get cancer in more
places than just one, or it can enter the blood stream which takes over the whole organism. The
author says that the gene that he believes, as well as many other scientists, is mutated is p53,
which is the control center for apoptosis. So if a cell mutates and is able to shut off or alter p53
all of, or most of, the information for cell destruction is turned off. Another thing that may be
mutated that turns off apoptosis is BCL-2, which is in the mitochondria that regulates apoptosis.
The third and final subject that the author talks about is how to take the knowledge of cell
destruction and cancer and effectively cure cancer. The problem that he finds is that treatment of
cancer is not a one target kills all; it is multidimensional and requires something that will be able
to target more than one thing. Another approach he has is to increase the death of cells by other
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means of destruction, such as Neocrosis. This may increase the rate at which cells die and
decrease the chance for cells to mutate and grow immensely causing tumors and cancer.