The article “Speed Reading of DNA May Help Cancer Treatment” reported on how mitochondria DNA can be read to see for mutation that might lead to cancer. In cells, the mitochondria, the part of the cell which creates energy from the sugars we eat and digest, contain small amounts of DNA. These are more efficient to read and scan than the DNA in the cell’s nucleus. Dr. Vogelstein, the main researcher of this project at Johns Hopkins University, found that about 80% of the cancers were from the mutations of the mitochondria DNA. The DNA in the mitochondria has about 16,000 units, while the DNA in the nucleus has about 3 billion units, so the scanning is cheaper and can be done with a smaller sample of blood. The problem with this method is that even in healthy people, the mitochondria DNA can vary from person to person, even by slight differences. Seven out of eight people have slight variations of DNA in the mitochondria. In different tissues, this variation is even greater, so they might be quite different from one another. So, this is a problem in forensics because finding a match of tissue to an individual would be more difficult is they do not know where on the body the tissue came from. This is not a large issue for cancer because the scientists only concentrate on the tumor on the body, which is usually in one location. These methods are still not available to clinics or to the public due to the high cost and also researchers are still trying to make it more efficient for the future.
This article is important to us because if there are new ways to detect cancer and find new ways to treat it more efficiently, then more lives can be saved, as well as more people can be treated at a lower cost. Also, people who already have cancer do not have to go through over-medication or have to do chemotherapy as much since with this new way of reading DNA, doctors can learn if the mutation is now not present in the body, which will save a lot of time. It is important that more people are treated for their cancers because cancer is life threatening, and in today’s world, we need a cure as soon as possible. Also, with this new method, people can be scanned to see if they are more likely to get cancer, as well as see if they have a cancer they do not know about. If cancers are detected early, then the chances of survival are much higher.
In this article, I wish it went more in depth with why the mitochondria has small amounts of DNA, and what kinds of information that holds. Also, I wish it would describe how the DNA is scanned after receiving the sample of blood. I am wondering how the DNA varies in the mitochondria from tissue to tissue, or person to person. This article is very important to people because in the future, more ways will appear to fight cancer, and more lives in the future can be saved.
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Core Biology Aine Cain
ReplyDeleteCurrent Events Comments 3/11/10
In my opinion, Juliana’s summary of the “Speed Reading of DNA May Help Cancer Treatment” was excellent. She did a good job going into great detail about the facts and results of the studies incorporated into the article. She provided specific numbers and statistics, which definitely increased my understanding of the studies. I also thought that her topic was a very current and relevant choice, seeing that cancer is a significant problem in our society today. In general, Juliana did a wonderful job summarizing the issue at hand and the experiments conducted regarding the speed-reading of DNA.
I only have a few suggestions for methods of improving the review. I did find some of the facts regarding the study confusing. There were certainly a lot of numbers, which made it a little hard to understand. Also, the summary at some points could have been clearer. It was just a lot of information to take in for one summary. Otherwise, I thought the summary of the article was very well written.
The finding that mitochondria DNA could be examined for mutations that could warn of future cancer was very interesting. This finding could benefit many people by predicting cancer. This would help individuals receive early treatment and could significantly impact cancer’s death toll, for early action against cancer is often important. Overall, Juliana’s review was interesting and informative, and I learned a lot from it
Juliana's review was quite interesting. I think her topic is relevant to our society today because cancer is sadly significant to all our lives. I think she did a good job explaining the process of which they test the DNA of the mitochondria's mutations that signal cancer cells in a body. I find that in most articles posted, not many people dig into their subject to that extent. Lastly, I think that her opinions and analysis of the article are impressive. Her writing accents the positive significance of this new medical study.
ReplyDeleteI had some confusion about what Juliana was explaining about the Mitochondria. I could not tell if she was saying whether the Mitochondria contained DNA samples of ourselves or DNA samples that made up the mitochondria. As well, I think Juliana could have stated how this new theory has already helped people with the disease-- if they have tested it on patients with cancer.
The entire article's topic was interesting. I did not know that mutations such a specific part of a cell like the mitochondria could help determine cancerous cells. But when one thinks about it, it would make sense since cancer is mitosis, or cell production, out of control. All in all, I really enjoyed reading Juliana's review.
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ReplyDeleteThis article is good and timely because it relates to what we are currently studying in class and with mitochondria and DNA. Without that knowledge I would be quite lost when reading this article. Secondly, this article had a lot of good statistics, such as that 80% of the cancers were from the mutations of the mitochondria DNA and the DNA in the nucleus has about 3 billion units, which helped to put this article into perspective. Finally, this is an extremely important topic as cancer is the most deadly disease in the US, and any treatment enhancement could save countless lives.
Unfortunately, there were a few aspects of this review that I didn’t like. First of all, it says that the DNA in the nucleus is different from the DNA in a mitochondria, but it does not say how or what affects that has. Secondly, she makes a number of grammatical mistakes, such as “if there are new ways to detect cancer and find new ways to treat it more efficiently,” which made parts of this review confusing to read.
I had known that Mitochondria have less DNA than the nucleus of a cell, however I was astounded at just how much, as a cell nucleus had 3,000,000,000 units of DNA compared to that of a mitochondria with a mere 16,000 units.