Anatomy Honors Enrichment Questions

1) What are chemotherapeutic drugs? Research two and explain how they work against cancer. Chemotherapy is the use of anticancer drugs to treat cancerous cells. Chemotherapy has been used for many years and is one of the most common treatments for cancer. Two examples are Antimetabolites and Alkylating agents.

Antimetabolites are a class of drugs that interfere with DNA and RNA growth by substituting for the normal building blocks of RNA and DNA. These agents damage cells during the S phase. They are commonly used to treat leukemia, cancers of the breast, ovary, and the intestinal tract, as well as other types of cancer.

Alkylating agents directly damage DNA to prevent the cancer cell from reproducing. As a class of drugs, these agents are not phase-specific. Alkylating agents are used to treat many different cancers, including leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin disease, multiple myeloma, and sarcoma, as well as cancers of the lung, breast, and ovary.

2) What is hydrocortisone and when used, how does this reduce cell damage? Hydrocortisone is in a class of steroids, a corticosteroid. Hydrocortisone prevents the release of substances in the body that cause inflammation of cells and tissues. Hydrocortisone reduces inflammation and damage of cells by stabilizing lysosomal membranes since it is an anti-inflammatory drug. It also acts by reducing inflammation by stopping skin cells from producing inflammation causing chemicals like prostaglandins.

3) If a molecule comes toward the cell, how is it decided if the molecule will be taken in using active or passive transport? Passive transport is moving biochemical and atomic or molecular substances across the cell membrane but unlike active transport it does not involve chemical energy. Active transport is transporting things from a region of lower concentration to higher concentration, and it uses energy. Depending on whether it needs energy and the transports or places that it goes through will depend on whether...