The Hugo Chavez Effect

Our cells live hazardous lives. They are constantly bombarded with forces, internal and external, that risk damaging the essential components of their livelihood. Ultraviolet radiation, free radicals, the toxins and imbalances from unhealthy lifestyles, combined with the mortal conundrum of error and imperfection, make the maintenance of the delicate and multifaceted balance of cellular workings a constant struggle. Fortunately, cells have means of fighting back, with methods to repair, adjust and equalize themselves. Specifically, cells have tools at their disposal for the repair and adjustment of DNA copies, allowing them to duplicate with minimal error and maintain their strands in as pristine a form as possible. Our modern proteomics, be they evolved or designed, ensure high fidelity. This allows a functional cell to suffer the slings and errors of outrageous biology and perform its duty as a member of a tissue. Thus, the greater good of the body is achieved, allowing mankind to read blogs.

(Is there a term for anthropomorphizing biochemistry? How about “anthromolecularization”?)

However, sometimes things go wrong. A cell, for whatever reason, can lose its sensibility. The high fidelity check fails, and the DNA builds up enough errors that it forgets itself. It begins to proliferate wildly, abandoning the role for which it was born. It seeks to spread. The body has a hard time fighting it, although it knows that something is wrong. It tries to fight. But the cell becomes an army– an aggressive, conquering battalion that establishes itself in domains far from its origins. There it grows and builds again, tearing at the body that its ancestors survived to support. Even if the body fights and ultimately destroys the original growth, it may succumb to the destruction caused by the large, even more harmful tumors that have managed to spread nearby. Cancer has thus claimed many lives.

Many scientists and physicians have sought to fight these invasions with vigor. Part of the fight is to understand the enemy, learning how it functions in order to identify its vulnerabilities. In the last ten years we have had many successes in that struggle, and have even won some wars. We know a great deal about how the enemy works, and often the intel is surprising.

For example, work by Kauffmann and crew out of France have found that metastatic melanoma cells express very high levels of DNA repair enzymes (see Oncogene: Jan 24 2008). These cells are attempting to divide and replicate quickly, but they also don’t want any errors to occur. In other words, even while a cancer is in the process of destroying the body, it wants to ensure that its own DNA revisions are carefully preserved. It’s as if it feels that it is a special victim of its surroundings, even while it victimizes its host. A cancer cell, in its aggression, behaves as if it were in mortal danger, moving with a sense of urgency and almost egotistical self-preservation. It is a philosophy embraced by each invading progenitor. Ironically, the very mechanisms that failed to shield DNA from error contribute proactively to a DNA-driven rebellion that is both warped and irrational.

To my knowledge, scientists haven’t come up with a name for this cancerous quirk. Maybe they will soon. Scientists love to name things. Maybe there’s even a personal parable somewhere in there. I don’t care, as long as somebody cures cancer.


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