Posts Tagged ‘dna’
Neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood tumor
Children are most affected with a very aggressive brain tumor that bears the name of neuroblastoma.
Such a tumor would be associated with a genetic trait through a variation in the number of copies of DNA according to a study at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania School of Medicine published in the journal Nature.
This tumor, usually fatal for the victim, could be part of a chain of variations in DNA copy number (CNV). Such changes are present between nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which features one side (in some cases) is a nature susceptible to cancer.
The study was led by John Maris, and he became involved in an analysis of genome-wide association in patients with neuroblastoma . Among the findings was discovered VNC found on chromosome 1 that could be associated with the disease.
The research team has determined that this genome is usually expressed in fetal brain tissue and that would be involved in the initial stages of tumor development.
Pancreatic Cancer
Th
e pancreas plays an important role in the digestive process, producing essential enzymes in the digestion of food. The other function of the pancreas, which can be described as “control of fuel,” is to produce insulin, which affects people with diabetes. Over 95% of the cells of the pancreas are exocrine glands, responsible for producing pancreatic juice that contains enzymes that break down fats and proteins in food so that nutrients can be absorbed by the small intestine and used by the body to repair tissue or to promote growth. Read the rest of this entry »