What are alkylating agents used to treat?

What are alkylating agents used to treat?

Alkylating agents keep the cell from reproducing (making copies of itself) by damaging its DNA. These drugs work in all phases of the cell cycle and are used to treat many different cancers, including cancers of the lung, breast, and ovary as well as leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin disease, multiple myeloma, and sarcoma.

Can drugs cause DNA damage?

DNA is the most important target for drug and radiation induced cell killing. The mode of cell killing by cytotoxic drugs and radiation has been derived by correlating the type and quantity of DNA damage induced with lethality.

Can drugs cause gene mutations?

They found that the chemical properties of cannabis – including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient of the drug – interact with and alter users’ DNA, which can lead to gene mutations that increase the risk of disease.

What is a thymine thymine dimer?

Cyclobuthane thymine dimer is a photolesion produced by UV radiation in sunlight and is considered as a potential factor causing skin cancer. It is formed as a covalently bonded complex of two adjacent thymines on a single strand of DNA.

What are the three major types of damage that occur to DNA?

DNA bases can be damaged by: (1) oxidative processes, (2) alkylation of bases, (3) base loss caused by the hydrolysis of bases, (4) bulky adduct formation, (5) DNA crosslinking, and (6) DNA strand breaks, including single and double stranded breaks. An overview of these types of damage are described below.

Which drug is not an alkylating agent?

Note: Although the platinum-containing anticancer agents, carboplatin, cisplatin, and oxaliplatin are frequently classified as alkylating agents, they are not.

Who makes chemotherapy drugs?

Top 20 pharma companies by oncology sales

# Company Growth (%)
1 F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd 3.63%
2 Celgene Corp 16.28%
3 Novartis AG 7.57%
4 Bristol-Myers Squibb Co 20.04%

Can a drug change DNA?

In other words, you can’t change your actual genes, but using drugs (and other choices you make) can influence which of your genes affect your health. These changes in gene expression can also be passed on to your children and grandchildren.

Which of the following chemotherapeutic agents is cell cycle nonspecific and interferes with DNA replication resulting in cell death?

Alkylating agents are generally considered to be cell cycle phase nonspecific, meaning that they kill the cell in various and multiple phases of the cell cycle.

What medications can change your DNA?

Common Drugs Impacted by Genetics

  • Fluorouracil (Adrucil®) Fluorouracil (5-FU) is one of the most successful and widely used chemotherapy drugs.
  • Clopidogrel (Plavix®)
  • Tamoxifen (Nolvadex®)
  • Atomoxetine (Strattera®)
  • Warfarin (Coumadin®)

How does genetics influence drug use?

While the environment a person grows up in, along with a person’s behavior, influences whether he or she becomes addicted to drugs, genetics plays a key role as well. Scientists estimate that genetic factors account for 40 to 60 percent of a person’s vulnerability to addiction.

What happens if thymine dimers are repaired?

Repair of Thymine Dimers. T-T dimers cause kinks in the DNA strand that prevent both replication and transcription of that part of the DNA. Because they block DNA replication (and therefore prevent cells from reproducing), T-T dimers and other forms of UV damage cannot be inherited, and thus do not constitute mutations.

How are T-T dimers repaired in humans?

Hence, the repair of T-T dimers in humans takes place through an excision repair mechanism. This repair mechanism does not require light and instead of just breaking the bonds of the T-T dimer as was done by photolyase, it excises the region of damaged nucleotides.

What enzyme breaks the bonds of a thymine dimer?

The enzyme on the right (PDB entry 1tez ) is a photolyase that directly breaks the bonds connecting the dimer, correcting the error in place. Ironically, photolyases use visible light to power this process. This structure captures the DNA after the thymine dimer has been fixed.

What is the difference between thymine dimer and non-lesioned DNA?

Instead, a thymine dimer lesioned DNA, if compared with a non-lesioned one, has sharp bending at the dimer site which is originated by two covalent bonds C (5)-C (5) and C (6)-C (6) between adjacent thymines forming thymine dimer ( Fig. 10.2 ).