How could the following drugs be fatal to a cell?

Question

Two types of chemotherapeutic drugs (used to treat cancer) and their cellular actions are Vincristine:damages the mitotic spindle and Adriamycin:binds to DNA and blocks messenger RNA synthesis. Why would each of these drugs be fatal to a cell?

Answer 1

When you want medicine, ask a doctor.

When you want compassion, ask a nurse.

When you want answers, ask a chemist.

Hello. I am a chemist. Not just any chemist. I specialized in oncology. Interested? Good. Here is the answer you want.

First, I will explain how chemotherapy works. Chemotherapy drugs do not kill cells. They sterilize them. You see, when a cell divides, it requires a lot of blood. Since cancer cells are constantly dividing, more blood than normal is required. This means that when an injection of Chemo is given, an unusually large amount of the drug will pool in the cancer site. Although chemotherapy works on all cells, it generally pools heavily in the tumor regions. In other words, chemo sterilizes any cell it comes into contact with. However, generally the chemo isolates itself to the tumor. As the tumor begins to shrink, the chemo no longer pools as well. The chemo then attacks all cells without much specialization. When all cells get attacked, the cell sterilization causes the visual elements that people associate with chemo. Hair loss for example. You may not like it, but hair loss is a good thing. It is a sign of recovery. If the chemo is not attacking a tumor, it attacks the hair. That means the tumor is either dying or dead (YEAH)!

Now, the drug is known as cis-dichloroplatinate. It gets into the cells and binds to the DNA strand. This causes a kink in the strand that prevents the synthesis of future DNA. How? Imagine a thin line... now place a school bus across the line. Can you stay on the line anymore? No. If you place an obstacle permanently across the DNA, you have sterilized it so that no further cells can be made. Eventually the cell dies without making future generations.

In conclusion, chemo sterilizes all cells. It just prefers cancer cells due to the fact they are constantly reproducing.

Answer 2

The mitotic spindle allows for DNA strands to be separated during mitosis. This would result in one of the new cells having too little DNA and the other too much. Result-Dead cells.

Blocking RNA synthesis prevents the building of proteins, necessary for cellular growth and survival. Result-Dead cells.

Forgive me if I've omitted anything or was slightly inaccurate. It's been a while since I last put any biology knowledge to use.

Answer 3

the idea of chemotherapeutic drug is to stop the cell from multiply. all those drugs are very toxic as the stop the mitotic mechanisms like Vincristine that damages the mitotic spindles, thus the chromosome cannot get separated and the whole mitotic process get into a hold. Then, Adriamycin that basically blocks mRNA synthesis, thus DNA couldn't get replicated and halts the mitotic mechanism.

Another question would be why we give it to cancer patients, as those are toxic? Well, we don't give chemotherapeutic drugs everyday, but in cycles, normally we'll give it in 6 cycles as a complete cycle. As cancer cells multiply themselves rapidly, their cell turnover (the time used for complete mitosis) is very rapid. They're more rapid than normal cells in the body. Thus one injection of chemotherapeutic drugs would be enough to kil significant amount of cancer cells, but not other normal cells. the key of success in such selectivity in chemo is that the cell turnover in cancer cells are rapid. Thus they'll die faster than normal cells in contact with chemo drugs.

Thus, you'll see some common side effects with all those chemo drugs like loss of hair, loss of weight, muscle wasting, nails become brittle, etc. If you can generalise all this signs, they're actually defect in the cells that has rapid turnover in our body like hairs (loss of hair), nails (brittle), muscles (wasting) and fat tissue (loss of weight, even though fat isn't the only contributor to weight).

Answer 4

They are fatal when the cell tries to reproduce and is unable to. This is called a bacteriostatic effect.

Cancer drugs also have a bacteriocidal effect in which the drugs affect the daily metabolism of the cell.

Answer 5

People who plan their weekly meals tend to be successful at losing weight than people that don’t. Plan your dishes to feature healthy carbs such as special potato and wholegrain pasta, greens and lean proteins, buy all the ingredients in advance and don’t be tempted to eat out or order in.

Answer 6

Suck that in. Consciously hold in and contract your stomach muscles while you’re walking, sitting at the desk or making the supper. This will help to strengthen your ab muscles and your core, and enable you to get one step closer to a new flatter stomach.

Answer 7

Vincristine disables cells ability to multiply. So, it would normally live, and then after its life period runs out, it would die WITHOUT OFFSPRING. Doesn't matter if it's cancer "long-living" cell. In the end, with too many irreparable DNA damages, these cells die to - in this case without daughter-cells.
Adriamycin disables cells' ability to to produce any kind of protein. So this cell can't create anything (that needs protein), or repair itself. So it just lives until she runs out of some necessary part an then she dies.

Answer 8

Beans, beans, are great for your heart, the more you eat the more you... lose pounds actually. Super-effective and full of fibre, beans will regulate your appetite and slow down the rate at which ones stomach empties, meaning you remain fuller for longer.

Answer 9

Eat goats cheese rather then regular cheese. It contains 40 % fewer calories than the cheese made out of cow’s milk.

Answer 10

Suck the idea in. Consciously hold in and contract your ab muscles while you’re walking, sitting for your desk or making the supper. This will help to strengthen your abdominal muscles and your core, and enable you to get one step closer to any flatter stomach.