#noncod

[writingfromasgard]

This is more my personal preference but I share anyways

[showersandflowers]

Are u April codes as well as showersandflowers

Hi there! Yes, I was formerly april_codes! My pastebin for those codes is still available and I'm still allowing everyone to use the codes that were posted on the account but I decided to rebrand my Tumblr and create codes at my own pace that I really enjoy. <33

[thelovebudllc]

Researchers use algorithm to pinpoint disease risk mutations in noncoding DNA

Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn Medicine) have successfully employed an algorithm to identify potential mutations which increase disease risk in the noncoding regions our DNA, which make up the vast majority of the human genome. The findings could serve as the basis for detecting…

[anusha-g]

A Non-Coder’s Guide to Becoming a Successful Data Scientist

"A Non-Coder’s Guide to Becoming a Successful Data Scientist" offers a comprehensive pathway for individuals without coding backgrounds to enter the dynamic field of data science. This guide provides insights into leveraging tools like Tableau, Power BI, and Excel for data analysis, visualization, and storytelling. It emphasizes the importance of understanding statistical concepts, domain expertise, and effective communication skills, enabling aspiring data scientists to thrive in the rapidly evolving data-driven landscape. Whether you're transitioning careers or expanding your skill set, this guide equips you with the essentials to excel in data science without extensive coding experience.

[colourmoon-tech]

Lover's demand: "Write 'I love you' a hundred times, 😘" Non-coder response: Cracks knuckles "Better get started…"

📝 Takes so much time and energy to write The programmer does it effortlessly with just a line of code. The programmer rocks always

[mindblowingscience]

A team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers has discovered a new way that cells regulate senescence, an irreversible end to cell division. The findings, published in Cell, could one day lead to new interventions for a variety of conditions associated with aging, including neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer, as well as new therapies for a collection of diseases known as ribosomopathies. "There is great interest in reducing senescence to slow or reverse aging or aging-associated diseases. We discovered a noncoding RNA that when inhibited strongly impairs senescence, suggesting that it could be a therapeutic target for conditions associated with aging," said Joshua Mendell, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Biology and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Continue Reading.

[felixcloud6288]

Seriously, genetics is weird.

I was reading one paper on long noncoding RNAs and there's this one part that just really stood out to me.

So to catch everyone up, genetic data is stored as DNA. Then parts of it go through a process called transcription to build a strand of RNA. Certain RNAs get translated into proteins, but there are noncoding RNAs that don't make proteins but instead do a secret second thing (and I mean secret cause there are tons of ncRNAs that no one knows what they do). long noncoding RNAs are just noticeably longer than average.

Anyway, one lncRNA mentioned in the paper is called WINCR1. When the researchers managed to block it from being used, they noted that cells lost the ability to divide and there was one particular gene GADD45B, which is responsible for triggering apoptosis, was more common in the cells.

So my guess is one of WINCR1's jobs is to just confirm to the self-destruct system that the DNA isn't broken. Like, it being transcribed essentially tells the cell that that part of the DNA is still working and it can then go and turn off the kill switch.

So I guess cells are just designed to kill themselves as their default setting and WINCR1 is the drinking bird pressing the Y key to tell the system to not just blow up.

[bnhaobservation]

Your focus is on the Todoroki family, so I'll focus on what was the main precursor to throwing the rose-colored glasses: Touya's quirk. Do you have any theories of your own as to why it is that his body simply began to adapt to an ice quirk?

Although I have my own theory based on, primarily, the ice quirk factor of Touya's heart and Shouto's strange division, which speaks of tetragametic chimerism (such as the case of the woman with her sister's uterus), the dominance of dominant traits (in this case, Himura blood) in elemental quirk homeostasis, the functioning of the long noncoding RNAs in charge of regulating the functions of the cells combined with the mutant gene "plus Alpha" (as would be the activation and deactivation of the physical adaptation mechanisms for the expression of an elementary quirk, such as temperature and acidity tolerance); as it would be possible that his physical change is due to the fact that at some point the ice quirk in his heart was passively activated and that triggered the readaptation of his body to the genetically dominant quirk.

But it always makes me very happy to learn about other theories from people who are dedicated to their writing and take the time to research even if they all come to different conclusions according to the knowledge and beliefs they hold. (It's a bit lonely being a writer in this sense).

I think what you want to discuss is why Tōya and Shōto have a composite-type (複合型 ‘fukugō-gata’) Quirk, right?

Sorry for the late reply but I needed to put some order in my notes before being able to reply to you in a vaguely cooherent way.

PREMISE: I don’t have a degree in biology, which means I might mess up things and my explanation can feel ridicule and basically amount to Quirk magic to who’s more knowledgeable than me so I’m not the best person to ask for such a thing. Horikoshi in creating his Quirks didn’t really bother with medical accuracy which doesn’t help with inferring how things works, especially when someone is, like me, more focused on respecting the canon than the real life biology. Also it’s an ‘in work’ theory. I might end up changing it in the future... or never think at it again since biology isn't really a fundamental point in my story... but I needed to have some ideas on how to set up things so this is what I came up with.

Now…

When babies are born canon gives them 3 possibilities regarding Quirks, they’re born Quirkless (〝無個性〟 ‘“Mukosei”‘), they inherit 1 of their parents’ Quirk, they inherit a composite of both their parents’ Quirk and therefore their Quirk is a new Quirk of the composite-type (複合型 ‘fukugō-gata’). [Chap. 1]

While Quirkless kids are slowly disappearing, the same isn’t true for the other two options, especially for the composite one. We know this by two things.

First, people of the second and third generation of Quirk owners deliberately organized Quirk marriages aiming to have their kids to inherit a composite of their parents’ Quirks. This means the birth of kids with a composite Quirk was recurring enough that people realized it happened and tried to exploit it.

Second, Garaki’s “paranormal singularity theory” (超常特異点 ‘chōjō tokui-ten’), later renamed “Quirk singularity doomsday theory” (個性特異点 ‘Kosei tokui-ten’), is based on this on how Quirks mix and become more complex with each passing generation [chap 166], meaning this isn’t something it happens so rarely it’s negligible, it happens with each passing generation in a way that’s consistent enough that people could fear it would bring doom to the human race.

This makes me think that composite Quirks are merely a result of codominant alleles which end up getting expressed at the same time (so nothing big that can risk affecting fertility, as otherwise people with Quirks wouldn’t manage to become the dominant majority).

I’m however assuming that the genetic code of a Quirk isn’t included just in a couple of alleles. Quirks are too complex for this, which means not all the alleles that create the parents’ Quirk are codominant, which allows two kids who have both their parents’ Quirks like Tōya and Shōto, to have Quirks that are similar yet different (plenty of characters in the series have composite Quirks, the one who’s more famous despite not being a Todoroki is Bakugō).

In short Shōto and Tōya’s Quirk might resemble mosaicism, but, I think, they’re actually not meant to be. They don’t have two different genetic codes inside their bodies, just one that says where their Quirks should manifest and in which amount and if they’ve or not the structures to withstand them.

What do I mean by this?

In chap 135 we've this bit.

Now I’m not a fan of Aizawa’s example, which split the tail Quirk into tail + infrastructure to move the tail because by logic the infrastructure to move the tail should be the muscles and if he can stop them he should be able to stop every muscle, plus he said his Quirk didn’t work on Quirk of the heteromorphic type, I get that now Horikoshi is trying to ‘retcon’ it by implying he can’t erase the tail, just stop it, but if he could stop the muscles of an heteromorph he would stop all his body from working, or, at least, he would stop the 4 arms of the guy that’s facing him and this doesn’t happen.

Anyway this works well to imply a Quirk is made by more structures, structures we don’t really know.

A Quirk likely isn’t decided just by a couple of alleles.

We see that people get to label the ‘result’, their own understanding of their Quirk, they label it with a name and present it to the Quirk registry, but they likely often don’t know how it works (which is why the Quirk registry allows people to make changes on how their Quirk work and why SURELY Tōya’s Quirk wasn’t named blueflame at the start as… it wasn’t blue. I like to bet it was registered as another Hellflame Quirk, which is why even though it was obviously a fire Quirk, Horikoshi refused to say its name).

In a fire Quirk user, he needs to have a part inside himself that create the fire, but also a part that can withstand the fire, similar to how an ice Quirk user needs to have a part that can create the ice and one that can withstand it. This however doesn’t mean 2 couples of alleles, one deciding if one has or not the part that creates fire and the other deciding if he has or not the part that withstand fire.

I generally assume that in truth ice and fire Quirk don’t really create ice and fire. In the ice case it’s possible they actually emit such a cold temperature that they freeze the water molecules in the air and therefore create ice.

In the fire case things are more complicate. It’s not enough for a fire Quirk owner to emit a hot temperature to have fire, fire to start doesn’t just need a heat source and oxygen, which it can find in air, but also some fuel to burn. Heat, oxygen and fuel form the fire triangle but, considering Enji and Shōto don’t burn themselves when they use their fire, it’s hard to say what they use as fuel.

Since Tōya’s tears took fire, it’s possible they’ve the fuel in form of body fluids so, kind of like how Bakugō excretes nitroglycerin-like sweat, they might possibly excrete oil-like fluids, which take fire if they heat up.

In order for a fire to burn hotter you either pump in additional air or pure oxygen or use a fuel that burn hotter, so it’s possible the substance in Tōya’s fluids is slightly different from Enji and Shōto’s.

What about fire and ice resistance?

Normal humans fight cold by shivering and by producing more inner heat and fight hotness by sweating but I take the idea is that ice and fire Quirk owners also have a skin that’s more tolerant to cold/hot temperatures than a normal one. This should be the case because in the sport festival Shōto hits his limit of cold tolerance and starts shivering after using his ice side a lot, when another person would have already gotten frostbites, as for sweat… well, if the sweat is actually the fuel the Todoroki use, it’s unlikely it cools them down, never mentioning Enji said his use of fire was starting to affect him, but we don’t see burns on his skin. Likely it was just that his inner organs were starting to get affected.

Now…

We know Quirks aren’t necessarily symmetrical, Lady Nagant’s Quirk manifest only on her right arm, so likely the placement of the Quirk on the body isn’t as simple as it might seem. Enji seems to have a whole body that can generate fire, eyes included, and that can withstand it according to certain limits, however is this always the case? Burnin’s fire Quirk only manifest on her hair. Midoriya’s father could only breath fire. It’s implied Onimā has fire resistance, in fact he worries for Kidō, who doesn’t have it, but it seems it’s all he has, as he is never show using a fire Quirk.

I said Tōya and Shōto’s double Quirk is the result of a codominance but this is an oversimplification because it’s not like they have a perfect codominance through the whole genetic structure of both Quirks and therefore through their whole bodies (like Bakugō might instead have).

At this we need to add the fact that Quirks are prone to mutate. I don’t mean this just in the sense that Eri and Terumoto Kōki have completely new Quirks, Quirks also apparently grow in power with each passing generation (Tōya’s fire is stronger than Enji), through in some rare cases they can get weaker (Shūichi’s Quirk is apparently weaker than the rest of his family or so his profile in chap 233 implies) and have abilities that can get unlocked with the whole Quirk awakening (個性覚醒 ‘Kosei kakusei’) thing, be it through training or through stress or near death experience.

From a scientific standpoint, there’s just too much we don’t know about Quirks and that probably not even in the BNHA world know to tell for sure.

Still, I wouldn’t say though Tōya’s ice is dominant and we’ve no info about it residing in his heart (though Shōto explains the heart is central to making both hot and cold manifest when using Phosphor… and the fact Tōya tried to use Phosphor as well to withstand Shōto’s ice might have subconsciously unlocked his ice Quirk). The Quirk doctor said it himself, the fire Quirk factor is more prominently inherited.

Ishi ‘Mezurashī reidesu ne… Honō no kosei inshi wa yori irokoku hiki tsugarete iru nodesuga. Nikutai wa Okā-san no hō o tsuyoku hiki tsuide shimatterundesu. Tsumari… Honō e no taisei yori mo hyōketsu… Samusa ni tekisei no aru karada nandesu. MaA… DESIGN jimita koto wa ne… Kono “kosei” jidai kinki nande… Yameto ita hō ga.’ 医師「珍しい例ですね…炎の個性因子はより色濃く引き継がれているのですが。肉体はお母さんの方を強く引き継いでしまってるんです。つまり…炎への体制よりも氷結…寒さに適性のある身体なんです。まア…デザインじみたことはね…この”個性”時代禁忌なんで…やめといた方が…」 Doctor “That’s a rare case… The fire quirk factor is more prominently inherited, but his physical body is more strongly influenced by his mother’s. In other words… his body is more suited to freezing… to the cold than to fire. Well… anything resembling design… has contraindications/is taboo in this age of “Quirk”… so it’s better to avoid it…” [Chap. 301]

In fact, in regard to emission, it’s likely the fire that’s dominant and the ice is minor, while in regard to structures to withstand temperature he’s better predisposed for the cold (Horikoshi has revealed in the side material Tōya also has fire resistance but it’s not enough to withstand his much hotter fire Quirk).

Tōya has both Quirks but they’re somehow unbalanced in how they express but can compensate if they work simultaneously, Shōto is more balanced in how both express each other but, at the same time he can’t reach the level his brother reaches.

So, back to Tōya, what caused the change in his body?

Quirk activation seems often to be involuntary in kids. As a newborn Tōya should have ended up activating his fire Quirk very early on, we know because Enji and Rei decide to have Fuyumi because Enji wants a kid with a dual Quirk (and believes Tōya doesn’t have it) and Rei thinks siblings could support each other. Fuyumi is conceived around 2 months after Tōya’s birth, which means they knew very early on about Tōya’s Quirk, which makes sense. The luminescent baby shined at his birth and baby Shōto iced his snot bubble as he slept. However he never unlocked his ice Quirk and the family came to believe he didn’t have one. It also make sense, Quirks might not manifest until preschool.

Add to this he was likely encouraged to use his fire side way more than any normal kid would, Enji even started to give him the first fire Quirk lessons.

It’s during one of them that Enji realizes his son’s hair started to turn white, when Tōya is 3, so I also think Tōya subconsciously turned on his ice Quirk, maybe in sleep and didn’t realize about it as the usage might not have been that relevant… or maybe at that time he was still used to sleep with Fuyumi and they assumed the ice in the room was made by Fuyumi, not by Tōya.

However hair color is due to melanin and cold damages melanin, which might be why all the ice Quirk owner have white hair. Their own Quirk damages their melanin causing them to be born with white hair or for their hair to become white as soon as they start to use their ice Quirk.

Why Tōya also starts to burn?

I do prefer to think he hit his limit, Enji has taught him to raise his fire temperature and his fire had become too strong for his fire resistance, but it’s also possible that by subconsciously activating his ice Quirk, Tōya, who’s still in the middle or a very intense growing phase, had caused his body’s resources to redirect on building up an ice tolerance instead than a fire one that can compensate the increase of heat in his fire. However, since Shōto could have both, this doesn’t seem to make much sense to me because this means the two don’t negate each other. Maybe it’s just me.

However I tend to place the blame on the speeding up of the whitening process not to Tōya using his ice Quirk subconsciously (otherwise at a certain point he should have realized he has ice) but to the stress the situation generated. Melanin can be damaged also by stress and, as soon as Tōya start to burn himself, things get very stressing for him, likely first due to medical exams and visits as his parents think there’s something wrong in him, and then due to how he’s told he can’t become a Hero, that he can’t use his Quirk and Enji dropping to train him and spending time with him.

While it starts as a sign he has a ice Quirk, it becomes a sign measuring his distress. So while his hair were always meant to turn white as he would start to use his ice Quirk, the psychological distress caused it much faster than the latent ice Quirk could have.

That’s what I put together that seems to fit with the canon we’re given. It’s obviously a compromise, I doubt Horikoshi cared about the biology in Quirks and very likely Shōto’s hair split as well as his heterochromia are there for a purely visual value (and so that Rei would be lead to attack him), and not because he lost sleep thinking at the biological implications.

As I said I’ve not a degree in biology and my interest is mainly in the psychology of the characters more than in the mechanic of Quirks (which is why I’ve a ‘medical inaccuracies’ tag for my fic) so sorry if this feels terribly unsatisfactory and unreal.

Still, thank you for your ask! As I've said I really have fun talking about what's behind my story.

[welcome-to-cell-hell]

WORLDBUILDING NOTES: CELL DIVISION

I’m taking genetics this spring and it got me thinking about how cells divide, here are my thoughts! This is def one of the more sci-fi posts I’ve written and not gonna be 100% scientifically accurate so bear with me lol.

Let’s start with the notion that the nucleus is essentially a cell’s brain. It sits inside their head, coding proteins and all that, along with brain functions like thoughts, emotions, personalities, learning, etc, which are directly linked to noncoding DNA. These functions are not as understood by cells (and not understood at all by humans) as the coding DNA is, but tiny changes in the coiling of these segments and weak interactions with surrounding noncoding DNA form the cell’s psyche. Even after a cell divides, that cell’s chromatin will fold right back to its original shape and retain that individual cell’s memories and character, drawn back into place by those I.M.F.s (Intermolecular forces). And the same thing happens in prokaryotes since it’s not reliant on the nucleus itself. But I’m not a biochemist and I’m not gonna pretend to know what I’m talking about, so that’s all the detail you’re getting. All you need to know is noncoding DNA arranged a certain way = unique cell with their own thoughts and feelings.

When a cell divides, the process is a little different from what we understand IRL. Usually, interphase takes most of the time and happens before everything else. The cell grows, replicates its DNA, and duplicates its organelles. Instead, the only things that happen before cytokinesis are fragments of organelles pinching off and replication of DNA. Basically, in real life you get G1 ➡️ S ➡️ G2 ➡️ M, and here you get S ➡️ M ➡️ G (excluding checkpoints). During the replication process, a cell will start to feel light-headed, and take this as a sign that it’s probably time to step back from work. Little by little, noncoding I.M.Fs will get broken by ribosomes, and instinct will take over to carry out what we observe IRL.

By time chromosomes start condensing, the cell has forgotten how to speak, think, or even who they were before. But they’re okay, and just going through the motions laid out by instinct. A trusted non-dividing cell usually accompanies them to make sure everything goes well and to prepare the interphase tube for them (explained in a bit). Cells often describe M phase as fading into a dreamless sleep or deep meditation while you’re still up and moving around, and then waking up when it’s over.

In this state, the cell undergoes all stages of M phase, with half of the chromosomes staying in their head where they’ll decondense, and the other half, along with the organelle fragments, move to the end of the tail to become a vesicle that pinches off from the especially supple membrane found there. While this happens, they sit quietly as the spindles separate the chromosomes, and then gently detach the vesicle.

When the cell “wakes up,” they have a monster headache and they’re holding a vesicle about the size of a soccer ball. It looks more like a real cell than anything, housing a full set of DNA and fragments that will grow into full organelles. The vesicle then goes straight into the interphase tube, but the nondividing cell can’t take it from them until they’re fully awake because they’ll protect it on instinct and might get aggressive abt it. The tube looks a lot like the ones in canon, it’s kept warm and the blue fluid in there is full of all the nutrients the growing cell will need. Usually, it also has certain chemicals that will randomize many of the I.M.Fs that the decondensed chromatin will form, resulting in a new individual with their own personality, and not just a perfect clone of the “parent” cell. Noncoding interactions that control the expression of things like membrane/flagella/eye color and other physical attributes like height and patterns are also randomized, but coding DNA, expression of cell type features, and basic skills stay the same. In about an hour or two, when I.M.F.s in the daughter cell finalize, they’re brought out of the tube and sent right to the shower. After that, they get dressed, and are then taken to wherever the parent cell works and shown the ropes. Due to those preserved interactions, they usually catch on pretty quickly, and they’ll be living their own life in no time.

That was mitosis. As for meiosis, it’s pretty much the same, except you need more interphase tubes and only professionals can oversee the process. But unfortunately, the original parent cell’s I.M.F.s don’t get preserved because they were built on diploid framework, and volunteering to undergo meiosis is seen as a huge selfless sacrifice. Before it happens, the cell can do whatever they want, which usually involves a big party with friends or a sightseeing trip. Some really out-there ones that have canonically happened include: being in charge of the news station for a day, giving all the WBCs silly string (they ended up keeping it as a distraction method), throwing random things with trebuchets, punching a hated celeb on live TV, and formally outlawing the phrase “gettin’ jiggy with it” just to piss off a co-worker who said it all the time.

[lovecenturies]

Crossposting Instagram auto share to Facebook and Threads!

Videos and pictures resumes! Here are our brands handmade by Love, Centuries™

We got LifelineBeads™ bracelets.

Matte and Take™ matte lipstick.

Plump Potion™ lipgloss.

Light Aroma™ scented candles

Scent Me™ fragrance.

Will announce on a separate post once online selling platform apps are available for checkout 🫶 (Still posting the giveaways from Christmas/NewYears.

Or unless noncod payment GCash Maya other Banks and manual booking J&T or lalamove is okay with everyone??? )

🎉 Love, Centuries™ is an Indie Brand based in Manila. We sell various handmade products such as Matte Lipstick, Lipgloss, Lipbalm, Lipscrub, Body Butters, Artisan Candles, Soaps, Jewelries, No Bake Snacks and CLOTHES!

[kramlabs]

Lipid rafts and “virus” communication

…“cell to cell” communication and programming* in context

.

;:

:::

:::

Commentary:

“There is not one thing single thing a virus can do that is not already enabled by cell to cell communication…”

:

Note, further search on “DTRA, Bavari, Malone and remdesivir”, also, find JC on a Bike’s comments on exosomes and cell to cell comms

:

*reminds me of this:

“If DNA answers to proteins enzymes, then Who do proteins enzymes answer to? Who or what commands them?”

.

Mathis on “proteins”:

LINK

[thelovebudllc]

Review sheds light on the mechanistic role of long non-coding RNAs in liver disease

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), formerly known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is a global health challenge, affecting nearly 30% of adults worldwide. A significant subset of MASLD patients progresses to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), liver fibrosis, and even hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), yet no universally approved…

[applbottmjeens]

I HAVE A PERSONAL ACC NOW. NONCOD/NONART STUFF WILL NOW BE FT. ON

@handholdinghomie

[spatialheather]

This makes another annoying internet thing make sense to me as well: when you use those coupon sites (the ones that Honey proclaimed to replace) there is basically always a noncode "shop with the best deals" button that opens the web store in a new browser. I absolutely would not be surprised if that click is doing the exact same thing as Honey: stealing any referral that actually sent you to the website with their own "Last click", not actually giving you any discount, and probably collecting and selling your shopping data.

if you have the Honey browser extension installed, uninstall it immediately. big big story broke on youtube today strongly indicating that Honey has been massively defrauding basically everyone who does any business with them at every level, including influencers, customers, and actual retailers.

the short version of ONE of the alleged crimes is that they've been hijacking referral links and codes. if you have honey installed on your browser at all, and you use any referral code from anyone, there is a high probability honey will swap out the referral link identifier for their own even if they don't provide a coupon at checkout.

they also are just lying to you, and hiding coupons that very much exist. they're completely fraudulent

paypal bought honey in 2019 for 4 billion, so paypal has been strip mining the influencer economy for 5 years now. the amount of money that's been essentially stolen is unfathomable

[nursingwriter]

Cellular Proliferation: Cancer One-60-year-old might develop cancer and another 60-year-old with identical promoters might not develop cancer as a result of mutations that have occurred with the cancer-laden 60-year-old. For example, while these two elderly adults may have started off with the same promoters, the person who eventually developed cancer did so as result mutations occurring in the noncoding region of the gene, such as the promoter sequences that regulate the gene (cancer.gov). A mutation which occurs in the promoter region can alter the rate of protein production. This can cause unregulated cell growth and amp up the progress of cancer (Cancer.gov). For example, the 60-year-old with cancer might have originally had the same promoters as the non-cancerous 60-year-old, but may have suffered from a wide variety of mutations in non-coding regions such as in his promoters causing the "…production of important checkpoint proteins to malfunction. Collectively, these mutations conspire to change a genome from normal to cancerous" (Cancer.gov). 2. A perfect cell tumor marker refers to materials created by cancer cells or from cells in an organism's body which are responding to the presence of cancer or a harmless condition of the body (cancer.gov/topics). Normal cells and cancer cells can both create tumor markers, though cancer creates tumor markers in higher numbers. "These substances can be found in the blood, urine, stool, tumor tissue, or other tissues or bodily fluids of some patients with cancer. Most tumor markers are proteins. However, more recently, patterns of gene expression and changes to DNA have also begun to be used as tumor markers. Markers of the latter type are assessed in tumor tissue specifically" (cancer.gov/topics). Tumor marker CA 19-9 is a common one used to screen conditions like colorectal cancer, bladder cancer and pancreatic cancer. Most people who have pancreatic cancer will demonstrate large amounts of CA 19-9 in their blood; the higher the levels of this tumor marker, the higher the likelihood that the cancer is spreading (cancer.org). CA 19-9 however is not a strong and entirely definitive tumor marker: "CA 19-9 is not sensitive or specific enough to use as a screening test for cancer and it is not diagnostic of a specific type of cancer" (labtestsonline.org). Rather, as a tumor marker, it helps to distinguish between things like cancer of the pancreas and other types, observance of treatment to types of cancer and as a means of screening the recurrence of types of cancer (labtestsonline.org). "CA 19-9 can only be used as a tumor marker if the cancer is producing elevated amounts of it. Since CA 19-9 is elevated in about 65% of those with bile duct (hepatobiliary) cancer, it may be ordered to help evaluate and monitor people with this type of cancer" (labtestsonline.org). Additional advantages of this tumor marker are that it can aid health care professionals by providing a means of following up with patients; patients who have low levels of this tumor marker generally have a better outlook than those who do not (cancer.org). 3. Angiogenesis and invasion both play a prominent role when it comes to the growth of tumors; in fact in order for invasive tumor growth and metastasis to even happen, angiogenesis is an absolute necessity (Folkman, 2002). Inhibiting angiogenesis is a valuable method to fighting and treating cancer: "Avascular tumors are severely restricted in their growth potential because of the lack of a blood supply. For tumors to develop in size and metastatic potential they must make an 'angiogenic switch' through perturbing the local balance of proangiogenic and antiangiogenic factors. Frequently, tumors overexpress proangiogenic factors, such as vascular endothelial growth factor, allowing them to make this angiogenic switch" (Folkman, 2002). Thus, being able to thwart or interrupt this process and its effectiveness is a means of cancer therapy, or at least one approach clinicians can suggest. 4. One of the biggest advantages of immunotherapy when fighting cancer is how specific it can be: it's friendly and natural to the patient and scientifically validated (cancerreasearch.org, 2009).Immunotherapists can provide sensitive and accurate cancer diagnostic tools for the successful treatment of the disease and to stop it well in its tracks (cancerresearch.org, 2009). The outward advantages of immunotherapy are as follows: certain drugs have fewer side effects and offer patients a higher quality of life, bolstered anti-cancer effectiveness and rates of survival, benefits are often reaped quickly for the patient (cisncancer.org). The disadvantages are as follows: some varieties of this treatment have serious side effects, are very expensive and occasionally offer just a short-term efficacy (cisncancer.org) 5. An overexpression of proto-oncogenes can cause cancer as mutated forms of these genes can promote unrestrained cell proliferation: "oncogenes actively promote proliferation (analogous to the gas pedal of the cell cycle). Mutations that convert proto-oncogenes to oncogenes typically increase the activity" (Hyland). An underexpression of tumor suppressor genes can also put an individual in a precarious situation. Tumor suppressor genes slam the brakes on cell proliferation: not enough of these genes could easily create a situation of unregulated cell growth (Hyland). Lung Cancer: Case Study 1. Based on this limited history, the patient might have developed chronic bronchitis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 2. I would ask the patient if her cough is wet or dry, if she's lost any weight or feels an increased sense of fatigue. 3. I would ask the patient if she's ever experience anxiety, if she's had pneumonia and if heart disease is in her family. 4. The pertinent positive on the exam are that her heartbeat is normal, her wheezes are scattered without crackle or rhonchi and she is experiencing no edema. These signs might indicate that the patient is just experiencing an aggravated form of emphysema but not the onset of pneumonia or heart disease. However, the fact that other muscles are helping her breathe indicates a progression of the emphysema. 5. My differential diagnosis has changed in that I think the patient might have a just an aggravated form of emphysema: the disease has merely progressed. 6. I would order chest radiographs, chest x-rays and chest radiographs. 7. I think the patient either has an intensified version of progressed emphysema or that the lesion found on the patient might be evidence of cancer. 8. Additional tests that might be useful are ones which tests for common tumor markers of cancer such as CEA and NSE. 9. I would advise the patient to eat alkaline foods and to lower the acidity in her body, practice yoga and meditation and to reduce her stress levels and make sure she had a comforting friend to pick her up from the hospital. 10. I would tell the patient that we still would have to engage in a series of tests, before we can say that she is going to need chemotherapy for certain. The fact that the surgery was indicated to be a success and that there are no complications are all good signs, as is the fact that her dyspnea has improved. References Cancer.gov. (n.d.). Understanding Cancer Series. Retrieved from Cancer.gov: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/understandingcancer/cancergenomics/AllPages Cancer.gov/topics. (n.d.). Tumor Markers. Retrieved from Cancer.gov: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/detection/tumor-markers Cancer.org. (n.d.). Tumor Markers. Retrieved from Cancer.org: http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/UnderstandingYourDiagnosis/ExamsandTestDescriptions/TumorMarkers/tumor-markers-common-ca-and-t-m Cancerresearch.org. (n.d.). Cancer and the Immune System: Advantages of Cancer Immunotherapy. Retrieved from Cancerresearch.org: http://www.cancerresearch.org/resources/cancer-immune-system/cancer-immunotherapy-advantages.html CISNCancer.org. (2011). The Promise of Immunotherapy. Retrieved from Cisncancer.org: http://cisncancer.org/research/new_treatments/immunotherapy/promise.html Folkman, J. (2002). Role of angiogenesis in tumor growth and metastasis. Semin Oncol, 15-18. Retrieved from Role of angiogenesis in tumor growth and metastasis Hyland, K. (n.d.). Tumor Suppressor Genes and Oncogenes. Retrieved from Ucsf.edu: http://biochemistry.ucsf.edu/programs/ptf/m3links/TumorSuppressLEC.pdf Labtestonline.org. (n.d.). The Test. Retrieved from Labtestsonline.org: http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/ca19-9/tab/test Read the full article

[allthenewzworld]

A new study suggests that fathers may carry traces of childhood trauma in their sperm cells through epigenetic changes.

Published in Molecular Psychiatry, the research examined sperm from men exposed to high stress in childhood.

The study analyzed 58 individuals, focusing on DNA methylation and small noncoding RNA, adding to growing evidence that life experiences may be passed to future generations through epigenetic markers.

#studies #men #allthenewz #viral