B1.3 What makes a cancer

Question 1

What is necrosis ?

Answer 1

Uncontrolled death causes by damage

Question 2

Why does necrosis cause inflammation to cells ?

Answer 2

Contents of the cell spill out when a cell undergoes necrosis. This causes inflammation to neighbouring cells

Question 3

What is apoptosis ?

Answer 3

Controlled and orderly cell death

Question 4

Why is apoptosis considered as controlled cell death ?

Answer 4

Cell components are degraded and removed before they can do any harm

Question 5

What signals induce cell apoptosis ?

Answer 5

Intrinsic pathways or signals from the outside of cells (extrinsic pathways)

Question 6

What are intrinsic pathways coordinated by ?

Answer 6

Proteins in the mitochondrial membrane

Question 7

In intrinsic pathway, what happens when the pro-apoptosis proteins get the upper hand ?

Answer 7

Leads to the releases of cytochrome c from the mitochondria

Question 8

What does cytochrome c activate ?

Answer 8

APAF1, causing a conformational change and the exposure of CARD domain or caspase activation and recruitment domain, which allows the formation of Severn-membered apoptosome

Question 9

What ligands does the receptors on the surface of cells interact with ? (Extrinsic apoptosis pathway)

Answer 9

Lymphocytes

Question 10

What happens when the Fas ligand binds to the receptor ?

Answer 10

Formation of DISC (or death inducing signal complex)

Which activates procaspase 8 and 10, leading to downstream activation of executioner caspase and consequent degradation of cellular compounds