Cellular Communication
How its done and the disastrous effects of its failure
A Nicholas Puleio AP Bio Period 1-2 Production
Cellular Communication Overview
Cell signaling is a process which is extremely important to human survival, it controls all of the body's processes. It works with a 3 step system, much like entering a locked house full of pets. The key is put into the door, where that cat has been waiting, and the dog runs impulsively into the cat, which then proceeds to screech and run away. This is Reception, Transduction, and Response.
Methods of Cell Signaling
Short Distance - Paracrine
Ligand is sent out, which starts the transduction by binding to a receptor on the surface of another cell.
Long Distance - Endocrine
Hormone is sent out, which affects a large number of cells via the circulatory system.
Long Distance - Neural
Long Chain of cells performing a domino effect of Paracrine signaling, connecting many short distances into one ling distance.
Plant and Animal Cells can affect each other directly, through plasmodesmada in plants and gapjuctions in animals, these pieces of hardware allow them to be physically connected
Reception
Ligand binds to receptor
Transduction
Series of domino-like responses trigger yet more domino-like responses
Response
Cellular process carried out on the scale given in transduction
What is a Ligand?
A ligand is a specifically shaped molecule which bind to the receptor on a target cell, switching on the transduction part of the Signal Transduction Pathway. Without it, the cell releasing the signal will never reach its intended target.
How does Intracellular Receptors Work?
Used usually with hormones, this occurs when the ligand can penetrate the cell membrane, and binds to its respective protein, where it then travels to whatever part of the cell it is needed in, most often the nucleus for transcription purposes.
What is a Protein Kinase?
A Protein Kinase is a special type of molecule in the Signal Transduction Pathway, usually found in phosphorylation cascades, which gives an energy rich phosphate group to whatever cell needs to be activated. The cascade they are used in effectively amplifies a signal to hundreds to millions times its original strength. A domino effect of amplifying molecules are continually phosphorylation and re-energized until the signal is large enough.
What is cAMP?
cAMP is cyclic AMP, a circular version of the one phosphate group ATP. It is a part of the Signal Transduction Pathway, though it is not a protein. This is the molecule that activates the Protein Kinases of the process explained above.
What does the cell do after Ligand Reception?
After the Ligand binds to the receptor, a series of reactionary actions take place, entirely based off of the particular response given. If ever cell had the same response to every stimuli, then the Ligand shape would mean nothing. Most often, this is brought into a phosphorylation cascade when the response needed is very large, though sometimes the response is the intracellular part of the receptor changes shape, which then triggers a molecule to activate another to open up a surface channel. There is an unlimited amount of responses to an unlimited amount of stimuli. Most often, however, this related to activating a G-Protein, which then leads to the creation of a molecule like cAMP to activate further transduction.
That's rights, more than one sclerosis. Multiple.
This disease is characterized by tingling, numbness, spasms and pain in the extremities such as the arms and legs. People affected also have dizziness, bladder problems, and clumsiness.
Those who have MS also have difficulty multitasking and find it hard to make decisions.
It is caused by a break in the blood brain barrier, which is a membrane that protects the spinal cord and brain, major parts of the nervous system. The immune system then starts attacking the system as if it were foreign. This is a linked to damage to nerve fibers.
What is MS? - National MS Society
The hilighted portion is that which it is believed to be linked with MS, though no current tests have confirmed links to genetics and it is known that other factors play an important role in developing MS.
Research right now is in the direction of finding out the causes and what correlates with getting the disease, as well as heavy research into better, more effective treatment methods, namely those dealing with protecting the nervous system from attacks by the immune system.
What Exactly Happens?
The cells of the Nervous System are protected from the Immune System with a thin layer, though in MS, this layer is destroyed by rowdy white blood cells. This makes it very difficult to send pulses along the nervous system. The pulses can be slowed down or even changed from what they originally intended, since there is a lot to go wrong over millions of cells.
Works Cited
Board, A.D.A.M. Editorial. Multiple Sclerosis. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 27 July 2014. Web. 09 Dec. 2014.
"Multiple Sclerosis: Hope Through Research." : National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2014.
"Multiple Sclerosis." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2014.