DNA and Cancer Flashcards
Which growth factor receptor does masitinib target?
c-Kit
Which cancers are common in golden retrievers and rottweilers?
Lymphoma and osteosarcoma
What is astrocytoma a cancer of?
Glial cells in brain
What are the three cell extrinsic hallmarks of cancer?
Angiogenesis, metatatic potential, evasion of immune destruction
How do cancer cells evade immune destruction?
Produces cytokines to dampen immune response
What are the six cell intrinsic hallmarks of cancer?
Growth signal autonomy, resistance to inhibitory growth signals, unlimited replicated capacity, reprogrammed cell metabolism, resistance to apoptosis, genetic instability
Why do cancer cells have growth signal autonomy?
Cell can’t recognise them so not dependent on them
What is Warburg Metabolism?
Where tumour cells use lots of glucose, use it to produce lactate instead of oxy phos and use the remaining carbon for raw materials.
What are the angiogenic activators?
VEGF and PDGF
What are the angiogenic inhibitors?
Angiostatin and endostatin
What is a common metastasis site?
The perivascular cuff
What does Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor do?
Binds receptors on endothelial cells lining blood vessels, stimulates them to secrete matrix metallo-proteinases to degrade extracellular matrix and allow tissue remodelling so the activated endothelial cells mirgate towards the tumour
Where is platelet-derived growth factor secreted from and what does it do?
From activated endothelial cells, it is a chemoattractant for smooth muscle cells
What drug is an antibody for VEGF and what are its side effects?
Avastin, causes aneurysms and perforations
How does the primary tumour produce angiostatin and what are its effects on the secondary tumours?
By cleavage of plasminogen, stops angiogenesis and metastasis
Which part of the DNA do alkylating agents and aromatic amines react with and what does this form?
Nucelphilic sites on purine and pyrimidine rings, forms DNA adduct (covalent bond with carcinogen)
What is the Ames test?
Measures ability of chemical to mutate the Salmonella genome - grow bacteria that can’t synthesize His in the absence of His and only mutated colonies will grow
What are the five types of DNA repair?
One-step repair, nucleotide excision repair, base excision repair, recombination repair (HR or NHEJ) or mismatch repair
Which enzyme does one step repair use?
Alkyltransferases to repair damage from alkylating agents
What kind of defect does nucleotide excision repair detect?
Helix-distorting lesions
What are some epigenetic changes which may cause cancer?
Methylation of tumour suppressor transcriptional promoter sequences, post-translational modification changing stability or activity, non-coding microRNAs inhibiting translation of proteins involved in cancer
What are the effects of increased microRNA in a tumour and in normal tissue?
In tumour is acting as oncogene (inhibiting suppressor), if in normal tissue it’s acting as tumour suppressor (inhibiting oncogene)
Which part of the DNA does ionisation affect?
The base
What does deamination of cytosine produce?
Thymine