By sequencing the entire genomes of 610 tumors, and examining large parts of thousands more, scientists have created a map of the DNAAbbreviation for deoxyribonucleic acid. Composed of very long strings of nucleotides, which are abbreviated as A, C, G and T. DNA is the storage form of our genetic material. All of the instructions for the production of proteins are encoded in our DNA. damage (mutations) caused by smoking. The research addresses 17 different types of smoking-associated cancers.
Smoking definitely causes many genetic changes! This new work shows that people who smoke about 30 cigarettes a day for a year, will accumulate about 150 changes (mutations) in each lung cell. NOT GOOD!
It is easy to understand how tissues (like the lungs) which are directly contacted by smoke, are damaged, but scientists aren’t quite sure how tobacco can put someone at risk for cancers that develop in parts of the body that aren’t directly exposed to the tobacco smoke, such as the bladder and kidneys.
“The tissues with direct tobacco exposure look different than tissues exposed indirectly,” says Steve Rozen of the Duke-NUS Center for Computational Biology in Singapore. “The ones affected indirectly are more mysterious, pointing out that we really don’t know the mechanism by which smoking causes tumors in these tissues.”
Scientists did notice that tobacco increases risk of cancer in organs that are involved in metabolismThe sum of all reactions in a cell or animal. Processes that lead to the creation of biomolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids are termed anabolic pathways. Processes in which biomolecules are broken down, such as the digestion of foods, are termed catabolic. Metabolism is a term that encompasses both sets of processes. and waste filtration, such as the liver, bladder, kidneys, and stomach. Since these organs come into contact with the cancer-causing chemicals in cigarette smoke, this makes sense.
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