Carcinogenesis Flashcards
Classes of cancer genes
Activated protooncogenes -> oncogenes
Mutation of :
Tumour suppression genes, apoptosis genes, somatic or germline cells
What are the metabolic features of cancer cells?
Deregulation of cellular energetics due to the energy required for excessive proliferation of tumours via
aerobic respiration, mainly glycolysis and
increased fatty acid and glutamine synthesis which directly enter Krebs cycle
Avoids immune destruction
How do cancer cells avoid immune destruction?
Induce T cell exhaustion, restrict antigen recognition and inhibit immune response.
What causes damage to DNA in cells?
UV rays, ionising radiation, chemical exposure and metabolic reactions and repair errors
What is the most cytotoxic damage a cell can have?
Break in double stranded DNA
WHat is an endonuclease?
Cleaves phosphodiester bond withinn a polynucleotide chain
What is an exonuclease?
Cleaves nucleotides at the end of the chain by breaking phosphodiester bonds
How can metabolic reactions cause damage to DNA?
Toxic metabolites such as reactive oxygen species (from oxidative phosphorylation) and alkylating agents and aldehydes (from lipid peroxidation)
What are ways that metaboites can be harmful?
Medicinal drugs, carcinogens or endogenous intermediate metabolites. This is initiated by cytochrome P450 in the liver.
What is base excision repair?
Removes small base distortions from the genome which occurs throughout the cell cycle.
What is the response to DNA damage?
DNA repair, apoptosis, cell cycle checkpoint, transcriptional program activation
What are the DNA repair mechanisms?
Direct reversal: requires no DNA synthesis to correct error and uses enzymes to remove damaging parts of the genome
Mismatch repair: maintains cell fidelity and is strand specific
Nucleotide and base excision repair
Homologous recombination
What are the exogenous DNA damaging factors?
Extracellular from UV light, Ionising radiations such as X-rays which contains carcinogenic isotopes, chemicals and natural isotopes
How does tobacco smoke cause cancer?
Benzoapyrene is the carcinogen which inhibits the codon 157, 248 and 273 coding for the p53 tumour suppression protein leading to increased lung cancer risk.
What are the endogenous DNA damaging factors?
Oxygen, water ,
reactive metabolic intermediates such as reactive oxygen species and aldehyde and alkylating agents causing depurination
Normal replication errors eg DNA polymerase
What is the most common morphology of DNA damage?
Loss of purine bases via glycosidic bond hydrolysis, creating an abasic site in DNA absent in bases with no coding information so are highly mutagenic sites.
What is the effect of UV on DNA?
Pyramidine dimers form where there is crosslinking of DNA between cytosine and thymine bases which prevents replication or transcription beyond this point.
What is the effect of sunlight on skin?
50-100 DNA damage errors, most commonly pyramidine dimers and most mutagenic is the photoproducts covalent bonds
What are the photoproducts?
UV causes pyramidine dimers to form covalent bond between adjacent base carbon 4 and carbon 6 and create a thymine dimer which prevents DNA replication progressing from the point of the dimer.
What is the effect of ionising radiation on th DNA strand?
Single/Double strand breaks
What DNA damage is inherent in mitosis?
Replication error
What is the effect of carcinogens on DNA
DNA adduct forms where a section of DNA is bound to the chemical which prevents replication or
DNA crosslinking to form covalent bond intrastrand or interstrand and prevent replication
How do alkylating agents affect DNA?
Causes the addition of groups like methylation or alkyl group, which most commonly to the O6 position of guanine. This affects the GC-AT transition of thymine.
They require direct reversal to remove the DNA damage.
What is the most commonly mutated tumour suppressor gene?
P53, which can be caused by exogenous causes of p53 mutations such as:
Sunlight
Aflatoxin in diet
Tobacco smoke carcinogenic components
What is aflatoxin?
Aflatoxin B1 is a toxic metabolite from a fungus found on nuts. During metabolism of contaimined food, cytochrome p450 causes the addition of epxoide group which is highly reactive towards DNA.
This increases risk of liver cancer.
How can the toxic effects of aflatoxin be reduced by the body?
Cytochrome p450 can inhibit epoxide group through addition of glutathione group.
What is ATM deficiency?
Deficiency in ATM which is important in regulation of damaged double stranded DNA. It is an autosomal recessive condition that increases cancer predisposition with progressive neurodegeneration and premature aging
What are the exogenous causes of p53 mutation?
UV light, Aflatoxin B1 from diet and carcinogen benzoapyrene in tobacco smoke
What is a CPG site?
Area where cytosine nucleotide is followed by guanine nucleotide, separated by phosphate group. They regulate gene expression through silencing of corresponding gene
What are the endogenous p53 mutations?
Methylation of cytosine at the CpG site occurs. This is reversible however, because cytosine is vulnerable to deamination spontaneous deamination can occur to convert -> thymine which is irreversible. This causes G-C to A-T transition.
What happens when cytosine is deaminated?
Deamination of cytosine causes it to form-> thymine base.