Post created by Benjamin
As the world develops, the medical community is increasingly tasked with challenging endeavors. One of the current endeavors is cancer. Cancer cells are efficient at directing the body into the glycolytic pathways that do not favor the normal tissue cells. This implies that the normal tissue cells that enjoy the benefits of Oxidative phosphorylation will soon be out competed by the cancer cells. This phenomenal is called Warburg effect. In oncology, the Warburg effect is a form of modified cellular metabolism based on aerobic fermentation found in cancer cells, which tend to favor anabolic glycolysis rather than the oxidative phosphorylation pathway which is the preference of most other cells of the body.
Detection of cancer cells is always improving. Will there be a point at which Biology Pre-med Students can look at a blood sample and be able to differentiate Cancer cells from Normal cells?
At this point, a pre-med student who has taken Anatomy and Physiology can differentiate between sickle anemic cells and the normal cells. When it comes to cancer, research shows that the existence of cancer can be detected at a 99% efficiency from a blood sample. The same blood that we use for blood typing is the same blood sample that is used for cancer detection.
Hope for the Future
The future is bright because with improved means and well tested measures, it implies that every home will be able to afford a Cancer Testing kit. For that very reason, every family member can be tested at home by their family doctors.
How does this Work?
The body is a complicated system that has clues and traces of every bio-chemical reaction that occur. Take an example of glycolysis, we are now capable of detecting diabetes by understanding the pathways in glycolysis. We track the amounts of glucose, insulin and the by-products and we can confirm a profound conclusion about what the issue may be.
It is the same concept with cancer cells. We know that cancer cells have high glycolysis rate in tumor cells which increases the level of NADH. The increasing of NADH stimulates release of membrane bound LDH (Lactate dehydrogenase) and more conversion of NADH to NAD+ with concomitant consumption of pyruvate. Isoenzyme activity that catalyzes forward reaction will be increased in a metabolic environment containing low oxygen supply and ample pyruvate. LDH is an enzyme found in all living cells. LDH catalyzes the forward and backward conversion of lactate to pyruvate, in the presence of a forward and backward conversion of NAD+ to NADH respectively. Cancer DNA can also be tracked which requires advanced technology.
The Implication
A deep understanding and tracking of the progressive changes in blood samples for the known levels of known substances by the Medical Personnel and Researchers (Cancer Spies) can help track the changes in the levels of substrates and products of the pathway. Soon enough, the technology can just be as simple as pricking one’s finger and putting the blood that can change color to indicate the levels of the cancer-causing conditions. Very similar to Blood Typing that we did in our Anatomy and Physiology lab.