The role of microRNAs in breast cancer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The role of microRNAs in breast cancer - Essay Example Below is a description of the effect of miRNAs in breast cancer metastasis, treatment and cause. Regulation on Cancer Causing Proteins According to Yamashita and others, mis-expressions or mutations in miRNA have been associated with different types of human cancers. The loss-or-gain-of function of some miRNAs has also been found to contribute to tumorigenesis and epithelial cellular transformation of the breast. Research has also revealed that profiling of miRNA expression shows that different molecular subtypes in breast cancer have different expressions of miRNAs (Yamashita et al, n.d., p. 331). ER? is responsible for breast cancer. There are two types of ER? related breast cancers. There are ER?-negative and ER?-positive breast cancers. Most primary breast cancers express ER? with an approximate value of 70%. ER?-positive breast cancers have been found to respond positively to endocrine therapy. This could be because of the role of ER? in the endocrine system. ER? is necessary fo r estrogen-dependent growth. It affects the response to endocrine therapy among women with ER?-positive breast cancers depending on its level of expression. ... 331). The Roles of miRNAs in Cellular Processing There are various cellular processes in which miRNAs are involved. These include development of skeletal and heart muscles, and establishment and maintenance of cell lineage. The miRNAs have the ability to express specific tissue, which has been, observed in insulin secretion, proliferation, hematopoiesis, adepocyte development, apoptosis, and brain pattering. Because of these roles and involvement in diverse cellular functions, miRNAs’ function and expression dysregulation has the potential to cause diseases. This has been observed in Tourette’s syndrome, fragile X syndrome, and from recent research studies, associated with cancer development and progression (Kayani, Kayani, Malik & Faryal, 2011, p. 3175). Bachour and Bennett (2011) also note that miRNAs are involved in regulation of apoptosis, proliferation and differentiation, and have the ability to directly obstruct stability and translation of specific gene transcri pts that they target and cause cell physiology disorder. In breast cancer, for example, miRNAs have been found to be involved in the dysregulation of tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes, causing progression of breast cancer (Bachour & Bennett, 2011; Liu et al, 2011). MiRNAs are also found in regulation of cell development and cell cycle. This characteristic places them in the best place for exploring anticancer treatments. Altered miRNA signatures cause breast cancer metastasis and development. This has been identified through the study of the effect of the loss of tumour suppressor miRNAs such as miR-31, miR-203, miR-30a, miR-34a, miR-200s, miR-205, miR-342, miR-125s, miR-206, and let-7s, or the over-expression of oncogenic miRNA such as miR-21, miR-155, miR-222, miR-10b,

MPH502-Introduction to Public Health (Module 3 CBT) Essay

MPH502-Introduction to Public Health (Module 3 CBT) - Essay Example Right from the early days of industrial revolution, substantial portions of rural population together with migrants coming in search of work from other countries flocked to cities and towns that resulted in overcrowding, slum conditions and squalor with the associated problems of garbage, sewage, pollution and unclean drinking water that had negative impact on public health. Citizens quite rightly veered round to the opinion that control of diseases and maintenance of public health should fall in the public domain of governmental responsibility and there should be relevant laws and regulations that would ensure each citizen gets the chance to lead a healthy life with government being responsible to provide all the necessary amenities and maintain decent standards of public health. Governments of both industrialized and developing countries have since then passed numerous legislations in this regard and public health is quite rightly now firmly entrenched in the domain of public autho rity and public administration. Neither the governments nor the citizens deny that the primary responsibility of public health rests with the government of the country. Public health professionals quite obviously desire that there should be progressively larger allocation of funds towards prevention of diseases rather than fighting them when they threaten to go out of hand and become a matter of serious concern. Prevention, as the saying goes, is always better than cure. But in the political climate prevailing in late and middle 1990s it was becoming increasingly difficult for public health professionals to emphasize the importance of prevention as some of the law makers were of the opinion that the threat to public health was made to look more sinister than it actually was. Though there might be some instances of such overdrive, one agrees wholeheartedly with the author’s concern about prevention of a disease before it snowballs into a public health crisis. (Gostin L. O.,