IMMS Flashcards
All lecture content other then Histology, critical numbers and public health
Name some supersecondary structures in proteins.
Helix-turn-helix, Beta alpha beta unit, leucine zipper, zinc finger.
What is a nucleotide?
A base joined to a sugar and any number of phosphates
What is a nucleoside?
A base with a sugar group
What are the base pairings (also RNA)?
A-T(U) G-C
What are the name of proteins that attach to DNA to make them coil?
Histones (bunch to make nucleosomes)
Which direction does DNA polymerase synthesise DNA
5’ to 3’
What is the function of Helicase
It unzips the DNA strands
What is the function of Topoisomerase?
It unwinds and relieves the supercoils of the DNA it is a Gyrase
What doe SSbs do?
They bind to the DNA to stop the strands annealing
Describe the process of transcription on the lagging strand
RNA primase lays primers for DNA polymerase in small sections cannot be done in one go like the leading. when the okazaki fragments are made DNA ligase joins the sections DNA polymerase replaces the RNA primers
What differentiates mature mRNA from full mRNA
the 5’ cap and the Poly A tail
What are the type of ribosomes in humans? and components
80S made from 60S and 40 S
what are the segments of tRNA?
Anticodon that binds to the strand.
Amino acid binding site opposite side.
D loop and T loop and a variable loop.
What are intorns and exons?
exons are exported to the final mRNA introns are discarded and broken down.
What are the characteristics of DNA?
Degenerate many AA are coded my more than one codon.
Unambiguous as each codon specifies only one AA
universal all organisms use the same.
Non overlapping each nucleotide is only read once.
What is a chromosomal abnormality?
An abnormality where there is the wrong number of chromosomes from non-disjunction or where large parts of the chromosome has been deleted
Name for trisomy 21
Down Syndrome
Which mode of inheritance allows direct male to male transmission?
Autosomal dominant
Features of autosomal recessive pedigree
“skipped generation”
males females affected equally
affected individual only in a single generation
Name some AR conditions
Cystic fibrosis, Sickle cell anaemia, Haemochromotosis, Tay-Sachs Disease, Connexin-26
Autosome
Any chromosome, other than the sex chromosomes (X or Y), that occurs in pairs in diploid cells
Recessive
Manifest only in homozygotes
Allele
One or more alternative forms of a gene at a given location (locus)
Homozygous
Presence of identical alleles at a given locus
Heterozygous
Presence of two different alleles at a given locus
Allelic heterogeneity
The situation where different mutations within the same gene result in the same clinical condition e.g. cystic fibrosis. Thus an individual with an autosomal recessive condition may be a compound heterozygote for two different mutations
Consanguinity
Reproductive union between two relatives.
Autozygosity
Homozygosity by descent, i.e. inheritance of the same altered allele through two branches of the same family.
If affected sibling how likely to be carrier in AR
2/3
Characteristics of AD pegigree
male to male transmission and female to female
affected individuals in multiple generations
male females equally affected
Penetrance
The percentage of individuals with a specific genotype showing the expected phenotype
Expressivity
Refers to the range of phenotypes expressed by a specific genotype
Recurrence risk
50% for transmission of mutation
BUT will the person be affected?
Depends on penetrance and expression
Anticipation
Whereby genetic disorder affects successive generations earlier or more severely, usually due to expansion of unstable triplet repeat sequences
Somatic Mosaicism
Genetic fault present in only some tissues in body.
Gonadal (germline) Mosaicism
Genetic fault present in gonadal tissue.
Sex-limited
Condition inherited in AD pattern that seems to affect one sex more than another
Late-onset
Condition not manifest at birth (congenital), classically adult-onset
Predictive testing
Testing for a condition in a pre-symptomatic individual to predict their chance of developing condition
Characteristics of X-linked inheritance pedigree
Only usually males affected
transmitted through unaffected females
no male to male transmission why?
Lyonization (X inactivation)
Generally only one of two X chromosomes active in each female cell. Can be skewed
List mendelian inheritance types
Autosomal dominant/ recessive
Sex linked
List non-mendelian inheritance types
Imprinting
Mitochondrial inheritance
Multifactorial
Genomic imprinting
to do with methylation of DNA etc
Homoplasmy
a eukaryotic cell whose copies of mitochondrial DNA are all identical (identically normal or have identical mutations)
Heteroplasmy
there are multiple copies of mtDNA in each cell
the name given to denote mutations which affect only a proportion of the molecules in a cell
the level of heteroplasmy can vary between cells in the same tissue or organ, from organ to organ within the same person, and between individuals in the same family
types of prenatal screening
Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) of blood looking for foetal DNA, amniocentesis, ultrasound
What are the roles of genetic testing?
To confirm a clinical diagnosis To give information about prognosis To inform management Allow pre-symptomatic/predictive testing in close relatives Carrier testing To give accurate recurrence risks Prenatal diagnosis
What is tested for in newboon heel prick?
Sickle cell disease, CF, congenital hypothyroidism, phenylketonuria (PKU) medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD) maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) isovaleric acidaemia (IVA) glutaric aciduria type 1 (GA1) homocystinuria (pyridoxine unresponsive) (HCU)
What is analysis of chromosomes good for detecting
Chromosome number abnormalities, abnormalities in chromosome structure
what are FISH used for
Detection of abnormalites in number of chromosomes and microdeletions or duplications, can bee good for gene deletions.
What is a multi gene panel used to detect
single nucleotide changes
List benefits of Sanger sequencing/ disadvantages
Very accurate simple to read gold standard. but time consuming high cost per gene
What are the types of mutation
Deletion,inesertion, frame shift, splice site, missence, nonsence
What are incidental/secndary findings in a genetic test?
Additional findings concerning a patient or research participant that may, or may not, have potential health implications and clinical significance, that are discovered during the course of a clinical or research investigation, but are beyond the aims of the original test or investigation
What are targeted panels used for in genetic testing?
sequence a specific genes to look for specific mutations from a panel
what cell types can be genetically tested?
Blood (t lymphocytes) skin, umbilical cord, bone marrow, solid tumour, amniotic fluid,
how are chromosome abnormalities detected?
karyotype, comparing to ideograms, FISH, Microarrays
Describe what non-disjunction and how it can arrise in two forms
when there is an diffenet number of chromosomes in a cell. from meiosis one or two. in first anaphase or anaphase two both chromosomes/tids move to the same cell.
Trisomy 18
Edward’s syndrome
Trisomy 13
Patau syndrome
missing x/y
Tuners syndrome
what is triploidy
all chromosomes have three copies. results in miscarrage
What is obertsonian translation
when one of the chromosomes is added to another
what is Cri Du chat
5p deletion
Deletion 15q results in what condition?
Prada Willi/ Angleman syndrome
what is the resolution of microarys
5-10Mb mega bases
What is a constitutional genetic change?
Occurs at gametogenesis affects all of the body cells and is heritable
What is an aquired genetic change?
Occurs during lifetime, usually only affects some tissue and is non- heritable
what is a fusion/hybrid gene and how can it cause disease?
break points occur in the genes that creates a protein that behaves differently
what is a deregulation mutation?
Where a regulator gene is affected by a mutation and causes uncontrolled activity in the cell
What is an unbalanced genetic change?
One which changed the quantitiy of genetic material
What is a polymorphism?
A benign variant of a gene
What is splicing?
When exons are joined together
What is alternative splicing and where is it useful in the body?
Alternative slicing is the splicing of exons in a different order it can be useful in the prodction of antibodies
List many types of variant
Duplications of genes or part of gene
Deletions (whole gene or some exons)
Variants within the regulatory sequence
Splice site variants
Introduce premature stop codon-nonsense variant
Replace one amino acid in protein with another – mis-sense variant
Expansion of trinucleotide repeats
What is an out of frame deletion?
Out of frame deletion clearly disrupts the protein removes just one base and affects codons
What is an in frame deletion?
Where 3 bases or a multiple of 3 are deleted simply removing one codon.
Splice site variant
Affects the accurate removal of an intron
Non-sense variant
changes a codon to a stop one. this could be from out of fram deletion or single base change.
What is non-sense mediated decay?
when mRNA doesn’t have the correct ending which can be detected and this mRNA can be destroyed before it is translated
Mis-sence variants
single base substitution that changes the amino acid can be pathogenic of benign.
Name 3 diseases with expansion of tri-nucleotide repeat
Huntington’s disease CAG
Myotonic dystrophy CTG
Fragile X CGG
Anticipation
when a disease is onset earlier and more severely over time. Repeat gets bigger when transmitted to the next generation
and so symptoms develop earlier and are more severe
ALLELIC HETEROGENEITY
Lots of different variants in one gene e.g. cystic fibrosis
LOCUS HETEROGENEITY
Variants in different genes give the same clinical condition e.g. hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Name the mechanisms of dominance
Loss-of-function variants
Only one allele functioning recessive.
If a pathway is very sensitive to the amount of gene product Haplo-insufficiency
Gain of Function variants
Increased gene dosage a variant may occur at the recognition site for protein degradation leading to an accumulation of undegraded protein within the cell
Dominant-negative variants
Where the protein from the variant allele interferes with the protein from the normal allele.
What is a diagnostic test?
Patient has signs and symptoms suggesting a particular diagnosis
A molecular genetic test will confirm a diagnosis
In this context a genetic test is being used to confirm a clinical diagnosis.
What is a predictive test?
Testing health at-risk family members for a previously identified familial variant – often dominant
HD No intervention
BRCA1/2 some intervention
What is carrier testing?
Autosomal recessive and X-linked disorder
Testing an individual in isolation not particularly helpful – couple testing
Reproductive decision making
What is Pre-natal testing
Genetic test performed in pregnancy where there is a increased risk of a specific condition affecting the fetus
Chorionic villous sample or amniocentesis
Often chromosomal or DNA if specific variant in the family has been identified
What is a multifatorial disease?
A disease whose severity is affected by genetic and envoronmental factors
How can genetic effect of a disease be studied?
twin studies
what are the characteristics of a multifactorial inheritance?
The incidence of the condition is greatest amongst relatives of the most severely affected patients
The risk is greatest for the first degree relatives and decreases rapidly in more distant relatives
If there is more than one affected close relative then the risks for other relatives are increased
What is a metabolic process?
In biochemistry metabolism is a sequence of chemical reactions: a particular molecule is converted into some other molecule or molecules in a defined fashion.
What are the 4 dietary metabolic pathways?
Biosynthetic
Fuel storage
Waste disposal
Oxidative processes
What is the cori cycle?
When 2 lactate is converted to 2 pyruvate then into 1 glucose by 6ATP where muscles are doing anaerobic respiration
Which of the following is a catabolic or anabolic process Storage ,Biosynthetic, Oxidative, Waste disposal?
Storage - anabolic
Biosynthetic - anabolic
Oxidative - catabolic
Waste disposal - (either)
Name 4 diatary fuels
Carbohydrates
Lipids
Proteins
alcohol
What is the energy per gram of Carbohydrate?
4kcal/g
What is the energy per gram of protein?
4kcal/g
What is the energy per gram of alcohol?
7kcal/g
What is the energy per gram of lipid?
9kcal/g
What is Basal metabolic rate?
A measure of the energy required to maintain non-exercise bodily functions such as; respiration, contraction of the heart muscle, biosynthetic processes, repairing & regenerating tissues, ion gradients across cell membranes.
What is the Average Basal metabolic rate with units?
1kcal/kg/hour
What condtions are needed for measuring BMR?
- Post-absorptive (12 hour fast)
- Lying still at physical and mental rest
- Thermo-neutral environment (27 – 29oC)
- No tea/coffee/nicotine/alcohol in previous 12 hours
- No heavy physical activity previous day
- Establish steady-state (~ 30 minutes)
- If any of the above conditions are not met, then = Resting Energy Expenditure (REE)
What factors affect BMR and how do they do this?
Increased age decreases BMR Gender Male is higher than female Dieting/ starvation decreases BMR Hypothyroidism lowers it Lower muscle mass causes lower BMR Increased BMI increases BRM Hyperthyroidism increases BMR Fever/ infection and disease increases BMR Caffeine/ stimulants and exercise also raise BMR
What happens to excess enerygy intake?
Store as triglycerides in adipose (approx 15kg),
Store as glycogen (up to 200g in liver & 150g in muscle), 80g in the liver after overnight fast,
Store as protein in muscle (approx 6kg).
Explain what happens during starvation in terms of hormones and energy sources.
lowered insulin increased cortisol. lipolysis and proteolysis consequently increase. Gluconeogenesis happens
after 4 days the liver produces ketones from fatty acids and brain starts to use ketones
Malnutrition
A state of nutrition with a
deficiency, excess or imbalance of
energy, protein or other nutrients,
causing measurable adverse effects
What are the dangers of re-feeding too quickly?
Re-feeding syndrome: Re-distribution of phosphate and magnesium due to insulin switch back to carbohydrates as the main fuel with requires more phosphate and thiamine.
What are essential fatty acids?
Ones that the body cannot synthesise itself. The main ones are polyunsaturated ones such as omega-3 and omega-6
What are some uses of trace elements and vitamins
Co-factors for metabolism (iron) gene espression, structural components, Antioxidants
What are the uses of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)?
Heat labile
Collagen synthesis
Improve iron absorption
Antioxidant
What are the uses of Vitamin B12 cobalamin?
Protein synthesis, DNA synthesis, regenerate folate, nerve cells, fatty acid synthesis, energy production
What are the uses of Vitamin B1 thiamine?
helps with energy production
What are the uses of Vitamin D?
increases Ca absorption and helps deposit Ca and phosphate to teeth and bones.
how much protein should you take in?
0.8g/kg/day