Mechanisms of Oncogenesis Flashcards
What is cancer?
A group of diseases characterised by:
- Abnormal cell division
- Tumour formation
- Invasion of neighbouring normal tissue
- Metastasis to form new tumours at distant sites
What is a carcinoma?
Cancer derived in epithelial cells
What is a sarcoma?
Cancer derived from mesoderm cells (bone and muscle)
What is a adenocarcinoma?
Cancer found in glandular tissue
What is a hallmark of cancer?
A characteristic that a normal cell has to acquire to become a cancer cell
Provide some examples of hallmarks of cancer cells
- Sustaining proliferative signalling
- Evading growth suppressors
- Avoiding immune destruction
- Enabling replicative immortality
- Tumour-promoting inflammation
- Activating invasion and metastasis
- Inducing angiogenesis
- Genome instabillity and mutation
- Resisting cell death
- Deregulating cellular genetics
Explain how age can affect cancer?
- Accumulation of mutations over time represent the multi-step process which underlies carcinogenesis
- Accumulation only occurs in cells if the cells defence mechanism has been evaded (avoided)
- Many mechanisms exist for blocking carcinogenesis but over burdening the system increases the possibility that cells will escape surveillance
- Hence the longer we live = more time for DNA to accumulate and mutations lead to cancers
- Many mechanisms exist for blocking carcinogenesis but over burdening the system increases the possibility that cells will escape surveillance
What is the effect of carcinogens on DNA?
Carcinogens will cause mutations in the DNA
What are the two types of cells that can undergo mutations?
Which cell type can have more detrimental conquences.
- Germline mutation
- Somatic cell mutations
What are germline mutations?
What is the consequence of these types of mutations?
Germline mutations are mutations within the egg and sperm cell
- Mutations can be passed onto offspring
- Accounts for 5% of all cancer cases
- Increased risk of developing cancer → however rarely involved in causing immediate cancer
- Inheritable mutation
What is the consequence of somatic cell mutations?
- Mutations that affect somatic cells, cant be passed onto offspring
- Constitute to almost all mutations in tumour cells
- Only one cell needs to be mutated, then cancer initiation is clonal
- Tumour cells can evolve; sub-clonal selection allowing a growth advantage = explains heterogeneity of cells in a tumour
How are cell numbers regulated
Growth, apoptosis and differentiation will regulate cell numbers:
- Cells will proliferate and grow
- They will differentiate
- They will perform a specific function
- They will undergo apoptosis
This pathway will be regulated by lots of different genes
How is the difference between cell proliferation and cell apoptosis affected?
Mutations which alter the function of normal genes involved in this pathway
- Proliferation
- Differentiation
- Perform function
- Apoptosis pathway
We lose the abillity to regulate the processes involved in controlling cell number and cell number will continue to increase resulting in a clinically detectable tumour
What are genes that have been actived to be oncogenic called?
Proto-oncogenes
What is an oncogene?
An oncogene is a proto-oncogene that has been mutated in a way that it leads to signals which will cause uncontrolled growth (i.e. cancer)
What are tumour supressor genes?
- Tumour supressor genes will inhibit both growth and tumour formation.
- They will act as braking signals during G1 phase of the cell cycle to stop or slow the cell cycle before S phase
What happens if tumour supressor genes are mutated?
If tumour supressor genes become mutated then the normal brake mechanism will be disabled = uncontrolled growth i.e. cancer
Summarise the Models of carcinogenesis
- There are 5 models (but non exclusive)
- Non-exclusive as you can find compounds in different models
- Model 1 = Mutational (chemical carcinogens)
- Model 2= Genome instabillity
- Model 3 = Non-genotoxic
- Model 4 = Darwinian
- Model 5 = Tissue Organization
Describe model 1 of carcinogenesis
- Cancder is a multi-step process which includes intiation, promotion and progession
- Chemical carcinogens will alter any of these processes by inducing irreversible DNA damage (mutations) and act in a genotoxic matter
What is the effect of benzo(a)pyrene on DNA?
- Benzo(a)pyrene is a polycyclic hydrocarbon found in cigarette smoke
- Not itself carcinogenic (a pro-carcinogen)
- However it can easily enter cells and will interact with microsomal enzymes forming benzo(a)pyrene epoxide
- This has the effect of changing G nucleotides to T within DNA (mutations)
Describe that test can be carried out to determine whether a substance is carcinogenic?
AMES TEST
- Test will determine the mutagenic activity of chemicals through observing if they cause mutations in simple bacteria e.g salmonella strain
What is the effect of radiation on DNA?
Will cause DNA damage by causing DNA breaks and pyrimidine dimers.
These can be repaired, however if there is failed repair then it can cause translocations and mutations
Describe heritable carcinogens and how they lead to cancer
- An inherited germ-line mutation has an increased risk of developing certain tumours but rarely involved in causing cancer immediately
- In most known hereditary malignant syndromes, the elevated cancer risk is due to a mutation of a single gene (monogenic hereditary diseases)
- The affected genes concerned usually have a controlling function on the cell cycle or the repair of DNA damage
What is ataxia telangiectasia
- Ataxia (poor coordination), telangiectasia (small dialated blood vessels)
- Neuromotor dysfunction
- Mutation of the ATM gene → involved in DNA repair, will normally code for a serine threonine kinase which is recruited and activated by dsDNA breaks = cell cycle arrest, DNA repair and apoptosis
- Hence prevents repair of broken DNA and can lead to cancer
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Cancer predisposition
- lymphoma, leukaemia + breast cancer
What is Bloom’s Syndrome?
- Short stature, rarely excees 5 feet tall, skin rashes after skin exposure
- Mutation in BLM gene which provides instructions for coding member of the RecQ helicase family that maintain the structure and integrity of DNA
- Cancer predisposition = skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell
What is lynch Type II
- Lynch syndrome doesnt cause any symptoms
- Sometimes the first sign that a person has LS is when the symptoms of the bowel and womb cancer develop
- Mutation in DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes notably MLH1, MSH2 and MSH6
- Cancer predisposition colorectal cancer
How do viruses act as carcinogens?
Most viruses will be proliferative inside a cell and exhibit cell lysis. From this can will infect cells, multiply and release their contents to further infect cells.
Viruses can switch from a lytic cycle and become tumourigenic allowing transformation of cells
What is model 4 of carcinogenesis?
Darwinian Model = This is carcinogenesis by Mutation and Selection-Model of Clonal Expansion .
It is based on the role of the environment in selecting cells that have some acquired advantage
- Cells undergoing expansion will take into account selective pressure with an aim to try survive
- If a normal cell during its life cycle accumulates a change/mutation due to exposure to a carcinogen there will be
- Sequential accumulation of mutations due to exposure of carcinogens
- Tumour cells will be selected FOR abillity to grow + invade
- Selection will include resistance to therapy
- Some mutations will be deleterious for tumour (rare)
