Writing in Biology

Friedel Crafts reactions occur in organic chemistry and there are two types including alkylation and acylation. Alkylation is the addition of an alkyl chain on a halogen. An example would be adding chlorine with two carbons to a benzene ring and resulting in a benzene ring with an ethyl off the ring. Limitations to be cautious of for these reactions include having no meta-deactivators on the benzene ring, no amino groups, no phenyl or vinyl alkyl halide, and possible rearrangement. If a reaction breaks one of the rules, then the reaction will not take place. On the other hand, there are Friedel Craft acylations such as adding a carbon double bonded to an oxygen and single bonded to a chlorine. The limitations for these reactions include having no meta-deactivators on the ring and no amino groups on the ring. Similarly to the alkylation limitations, if a limitation is violated then the acylation will not take place.

In Mammalogy last week we learned about zoogeography and marsupials. Zoogeography is a way to describe the local and global distribution of the species based on environments. There are 7 zoogeographical regions. They are: neoarctic (modern North America), neotropical (South America), ethiopian (Africa), oriental (Southern Asia), australian (Australia), and palearctic (Eurasia). With the topic of marsupials, we discussed evolution and their historical regions. Most marsupials are only found in Australia but millions of years ago they were in modern day Antartica and all over north and South America back when the continents were connected. When the continents split, the isolation and change in climates led to extinction of early marsupials in Antartica and most of North and South america. 

A news report stated that doctors have been overprescribing fentanyl for years and the FDA hasn’t been able to stop it. Fentanyl is a narcotic that helps reduce pain. The news report stated that doctors are aware of the dangers and issues that these painkillers pose, however, their recognition isn’t enough. They still overprescribe the painkillers and they usually don’t go toward any good use. The painkillers that are often overprescribed are called transmucosal immediate-release fentanyls (TIRFs). They are fast-acting and powerful and their main purpose is to help with the pain that cancer patients suffer from. The FDA has tried to put these overprescriptions to an end but has not been super effective in doing so. The CDC estimates that 130 Americans die each day from an opioid overdose where a lot of these prescriptions were misused.

Alzheimer’s disease is derived from the increase in the buildup of amyloid plaques. Amyloid plaques cause disconnections between nerve cells. The disconnections can alter and affect a person’s thinking, memory and behavior. Deep brain stimulation was attempted to see if it would help with Alzheimer's. The devices were implanted into the fornix, which is a fiber bundle between the hippocampus and hypothalamus. The use of deep brain stimulation increased glucose metabolism. After the testing, it was found that the increase in glucose metabolism had no effect on the disease. Therefore, the use of deep brain stimulation was not a good option as an alternative.

When the cell is not undergoing apoptosis, anti-apoptotic proteins such as Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL sequester Bax and Bak.  When the cell wishes to undergo apoptosis, the anti-apoptotic proteins are sequestered by the BH3-only pro-apoptotic proteins, releasing Bax and Bak, which allow the release of cytochrome C from the mitochondrial membrane, uncoupling the electron transport chain and inducing the activity of caspases.  In healthy cells, p53 is a transcription factor for the pro-apoptotic BH3-only proteins Bik, Bid, PUMA, NOXA, as well as for Bax, the pro-apoptotic protein with BH1, BH2, and BH3 homology and the most downstream member of the Bcl-2 family in the regulation of apoptosis.  Due to the fact that the majority of TP53 mutations present in HGSOC are in its DNA binding region, the transcriptional activation effect of p53 no longer is present for these pro-apoptotic proteins.  The major problem is that many of the BH3-only pro-apoptotic proteins responsible for inhibition of the anti-apoptotic proteins that, when active, inhibit the pro-apoptotic proteins Bax and Bak, do not get transcribed enough without functional p53. 

The Bcl-2 protein family consists of proteins that contain at least one evolutionarily conserved BH domain out of the four that exist (BH1, BH2, BH3, BH4).  Within this family, there exists pro-apoptotic proteins and anti-apoptotic proteins that work together to govern the fate of the cell.  Anti-apoptotic proteins conserve all four BH domains, and include Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, Bcl-W, Mcl-1, and A1.  Pro-apoptotic proteins can be subdivided into two groups, those with multiple BH domains such as Bax and Bak, and those with only the BH3 domain such as Bid, Bim, Bad, PUMA, and NOXA. 

Multicellular organisms depend on several hormones to regulate their growth and development. Drosophila melanogaster is a small, common house fly most people recognize as the insects that appear out of “thin air” to feast upon rotting fruit or the trash in one’s kitchen. Drosophila melanogaster exhibits complete metamorphism, where the life cycle includes an egg, larval (worm-like) form, pupa and finally emergence as a flying adult. Fruit flies can lay hundreds of eggs during their lifetime. After about a day, a larva emerges from the egg. As it grows, the maggot goes through three instars, which it develops until the pupa is formed. Inside the pupa, larval structures and tissues break down and are reabsorbed, and adult tissues start to develop until the adult fly breaks out of the anterior end of the pupa. Soon the body of the fly becomes more rounded and dark and the wings expand. After ten more hours, the flies are sexually mature and ready to produce another generation.

I labeled two tubes as one (-) serum, and another as (+) serum. I pipetted 25µl of Candida albican culture in both test tubes. Then I transferred 5µl, 10µl, 25µl, or 50µl of mouse serum into the (+) labelled tube. To create a total of five tubes. I observed the sample under the microscope, then placed into a 37℃ incubator. I set the test tubes in the incubator for 2-3 hours, then observed under the microscope again to see the transition of cells.

Speciation is a concept created by humans to organize life, but nature exists as it is without need to be understood. The concept of a species can therefore, be defined in a variety of ways. A few common ways that species are understood by humans include the biological concept, the morphological, phylogenetic, and ecological concepts. The biological concept defines a species as a group of organisms that can produce fertile and viable offspring, but excludes asexual species, extinct species, and species that create viable and fertile offspring. The morphological concept defines species as having similar development and morphology (shape). Phylogenetic concept tracks the genetic evolutionary relationships between the species. The ecological species defines species by their niches. The different concepts help to understand species, but they are often imperfect and cannot include all life in the categories that humans have created.

In order to accurately compare the effects of resistance vs. aerobic exercise, the two exercises would need to be equivalent in terms of caloric expenditure. Aerobic exercises include: walking, jogging, stationary biking, treadmill, and stair climbing. Resistance exercises include free weight lifting and resistance bands. In a study done by Mueller et al a weight bearing (aerobic) vs non-weight bearing (resistance) exercise group performed an exercise intervention in which the non-weight bearing group saw better A1C levels following the study. Additionally, no patients in the non-weight bearing group reported feeling “worse” after the intervention. According to the standards of medical care, weight bearing exercises are not considered to be safe for patients with developed diabetic neuropathy. Balance training has also helped show improvements in the risk of falling in DPN patients which may be a sign of improved nerve function (Xi Pan and Jiao-Jiao Bai). In general the ADA recommends 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per day for 5 days a week in order to lower blood glucose.