Biological systems cancer

Biological Systems. Whereas Raman spectroscopy is an important tool of physical biochemistry, much of this elegant work is of scant interest to the industrial chemist. However, Raman spectroscopy has been used to locate cancerous cells in breast tissue (53) and find cataractous tissue in eye lenses (54), suggesting a role in industrial hygiene (qv). Similarly, the Raman spectra of bacteria are surprisingly characteristic (55) and practical apphcations are beginning to emerge. 

Another peculiarity of the study is that the use of a biological system has allowed the authors to hypothesize a possible mechanism of action of the leachate as a mixture, hypothesis that could have been drafted on the basis of the only knowledge derived by chemical analysis. Researchers suggest that leachate inhibits cell proliferation at low doses probably inducing a reversible cell cycle arrest that becomes irreversible at high doses, probably due to leachate-induced oxidative stress. This activity is mainly due to the chemical compounds extracted in the aqueous phase. Similar effects were noticed by previous investigations on other human cells (human peripheral blood lymphocytes and a human breast cancer cell line, MCF-7) [31, 32], supporting the hypothesis that cells that survive the initial insult from leachate constituents maintains the potential to proliferate until the effects on cell metabolism lead to death. 

The second part of the book, consisting of chapters 6 and 7, describes the application of ab initio calculations to such biological systems as amino acids and peptides (Chapter 7) and anti-cancer drugs (Chapter 6). 

Although the correlation between structural properties of aromatic hydrocarbons and their carcinogenic properties proved to be much more complicated than was hoped, this type of calculation opened the door to the application of quantum chemistry to biological systems. The calculations are applied not only to cancer-related problems, but also to the study of amino acids, peptides, nucleotides, and other than anti-cancer therapeutic agents. 

Determinations of NO in a variety of biological systems have been made. For example, measurement of NO has been made in eyes [79-81], gastrointestinal tract [82, 83], brain tissue [47, 50, 84-87], kidney and kidney tubule fluid [88-93], rat and guinea pig isolated and intact hearts [94, 95], rat spinal cord [96], human monocyte cells [97], human endothelial cells [98], mitochondria [99, 100], rat penis corpus cavemo-sum [101], granulocytes [102], invertebrate ganglia and immunocytes [103], choroidal endothelial cells [104], cancer cells [105, 106], peripheral blood [107], human blood [108], human leukocytes [109], platelets [110-112], ears [113, 114], plants [115-118], and pteropod mollusk [119]. 

Ewing D, Powers EL (1980) Oxygen-dependent sensitization of irradiated cells. In Meyn RE, Withers FIR (eds) Radiation biology in cancer research. Raven Press, New York, pp 143-168 Fahey RC, Newton GL (1983) Occurrence of low molecular weight thiols in biological systems. In A.Larson et al. (eds) In Functions of glutathione. Biochemical, Physiological. Raven Press, New York, pp 251-260... 

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