Pathobiology Flashcards
What is a disease?
Any state in which the health of the human organism is impaired. Consequence of a failure of homeostasis.
What is Pathogenesis?
Biological mechanisms causing clinically evident diseases.
What is Atiology?
Specific cause of a disease
What is a risk factor?
A variable exposure or biological charactorisic that makes disease more likely e..g working in a building site with aspesdos.
Intrinisic factors for disease? (4 and examples)
-Genetic e.g. mutation- sickle cell anaemia
-Metabolic e.g. Diabetes, gall stones
-Cellular e.g. Autoimmune- Alzheimers, arthritis
-Structural
e.g. congenital- spina bifida, Ebsteins anomaly
or e.g. Aquired-atheroma
Extrinsic Factors for disease? (4 and examples)
- Physical e.g. trauma, bone fracture, radiation, temp= frost bite/ burns
- Chemical e.g. toxic substances- tobacco lung damage
- Biological e.g. Bacterial/ viruses/ fungi
- Nutritional- malnutrition.
What are the 4 stages of development of disease?
- Aetiological agent e.g. bacteria primary cause.
- Pathogenic mechanisms e.g. acute inflammation
- Pathological Process e.g. Morpholoical features- skin abscess,
- overt disease and secondary consequences-complications e.g. septicaemia
How were inherited diseases first indentified?
Garrod- noticed blackened urine and kidney stones was inherited in the disease Alkaptonuria 1901
Who started a catalogue of human diseases that exhibited Mendelian inheritance?
William Bateson 1909.
4 types of Mendelian patterns of inheritance?
- Autosomal recessive e.g. cystic fibrosis
- Autosomal dominant e.g. Huntingtons
- Autosomal co-dominant e.g. Sickle cell anaemia
- X linked e.g. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Haemophilia (A and B)
Sickle cell anamia causes?
point mutation causing a change in AA 6 of B subunit from Glycine (charged) to Valine (uncharged) which when aggregates forms crystalline structures. HB^A to HB^s
Why is the proportion of carriers so high in Sub-sarharan Africa?
HB^s confers a resistance to milaria
What enables the chromosomes to be visuallised and abnormalities in banding to be seen? Decade found?
Karyotyping, 1970’s
What are the symptoms of Duchenne muscular dystrophy?
Muscle wasting away, progressive, lethal in childhood or early adult.
What are the causes of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy?
Deletion of a DNA sequence on the gene Dystrophin- Dystrophin proteins link muscle fibres to the extracellular matrix maintaining tissue integrity.
What is Alkaptonuria?
Homogentisic acid accumulates in joints, causing cartilage damage & back pain; precipitates as kidney / prostate stones;
high levels are excreted, blackening urine
- allows diagnosis.
-Autosomal recessive
What is huntingtons disease? Year found?
1872, late onset disease caused by a repeat of CAG in the huntington gene increasing the size of the polyglutamate tract (QQQQ) 36+ glutamate have.
This makes the Huntinton protein toxic to neurones causing massive neuronal loss in the basal ganglia and dilation of lateral ventricles.
Example of cancer causing virus? Found when? (Retrovirus)
Rous Sarcoma Virus was found by Rous in 1911. DNA sequence was captured from the chicken and showed that the V-Src oncogene, which encodes an abnormal hyperactive version of a tyrosine kinase (now a C src Proto-oncogene)
Chromosomal rearrangements that disrupt the Proto- oncogenes cause cancer, Give an example?
Chronic Myelagenous Lukaemia caused by translocation “Philadelphia Chromosome” causing the ABL proto-oncogene to become a hyperactive version of tyrosine kinase BCR-ABL.
What is a V-oncogene?
A nucleic acid sequence in a virus responsible for the oncogenicity of the virus (proto to oncogene)
It is derived from the host cellular proto-oncogene and acquired from the host by recombination.
How does Retinoblastoma develop?
retinal tumour that can be unilateral (only one eye) which is typically non-heridatory or bilateral (both) which are always heridtory.
Why are bilateral retinalblastomas always hereditory?
Loss of function of a tumour supressor gene. Non hereditory needs to have two somatic mutations in the same cell to get bilateral hence very rare, else if inherited only needs one as there is already a germline mutation in every cell.
What are SNPS?
Single nucleotide polymorphisms. 3x10^7 across the human genome. They are a variation in the nucleotide in a specific location within the genome.
How are SNPs used?
They are markers used to tell people apart for profiling and seeing links to susceptibity for diseases.
Genome wide analysis Studies of SNPs:
-Genome wide SNPs collected.
-Case vs control comparison of specific SNPS.
-SNPS identified that increase susceptibilty to certain diseases.
If associated ‘locus is associated’