Exam 3- Block Flashcards
What are the main differences in the characteristics for benign and cancerous (malignant) tumors?
Malignant tumors are characterized by uncontrolled growth, invasion of local tissues and it can metastasize.
Benign tumors have uncontrolled growth only
What are three general ways in which cancer can be induced?
Chemical carcinogens
Irradiation
Viruses
Name 5 chemical carcinogens.
Alkylating agents Polycyclic aromatics Aromatic amines Nitrosamines Natural compounds such as aflatoxin B1 Inorganic materials such as arsenic, asbestos, beryllium, cadmium, and chromium
Direct carcinogen
Direct: act directly on a molecule
Pro-carcinogen
Pro-carcinogen: must be activated by prior metabolism
Proximate carcinogen
Proximate carcinogen: intermediate compounds along the activation route
Ultimate carcinogen
Ultimate carcinogen: the final compound along the activation route
Promoter
A compound required to carry the carcinogenic process through to the next stage to produce malignant tumors
Common: saccharin and phenobarbital
Initiators
Something that modifies DNA in order to produce a mutation leading to cancer
Point mutations
One base pair replaces another
Transition
One purine/pyramidine replaces another
Purines: adenine, guanine, hypoxanthine, xanthine
Pyrimidine: cytosine, thymine, uracil
Transversion
One purine replaces a Pyrimidine (or vice-versa)
Insertion/deletion mutations
A mutation where one or more nt base pairs inserted into or removed from DNA
Ames test
A test to screen for possible carcinogenic compounds by observing whether they cause mutations in sample bacteria
Strain of salmonella tryphimirium which cannot make histidine and lacks LPS coat that makes it impermeable to many compounds is placed on a culture plate without histidine in the medium. Suspected mutagen placed onto medium. If some bacteria mutate back to his+ phenotype in 2 days, number of colonies gives a mutagenesis score.
Approximately what percentages of cancers are caused by viruses and chemical carcinogens?
80% of non-skin cancers come from chemicals. 15% of non-skin cancer come from viruses
What are 4 major human tumor viruses and what types of cancer do they induce? And 1 bacterial
Epstein-Barr: Burkitt’s lymphoma, B cell lymphomas, and nasopharyngeal Cancer
Hep-B virus: hepatocellular carcinoma
Human papillomaviruses: genital tumors
Lymphoma virus-1: Human T-cell leukemia
H pylori: mucosal associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphomas - gastric cancers
What are the 4 genes on the Rous Sarcoma virus, and what do they code for?
Gag: for core protein
Pol: for reverse transcriptase
Env: for envelope protein
V-src (viral sarcoma)- mediates host cell transformation (oncogene!)
What are the stages of the cell division cycle for eukaryotic somatic cells?
G1- gap (or growth) phase S- DNA synthesis phase G2- 2nd gap phase M- mitosis phase G0- quiescent phase
Interphase : time from mitosis to next mitosis
R: restriction point near end of G1