Raúl Salas Segura G106 blog:. www.raulsalas93.blogspot.com
PBL # 1: Sickle Cells Disease. A Study Case
The Sickle Cells Disease is a type of anemia that affects directly to the red blood cells , making them abnormal, instead of being circle cells the red blood cells affected by the genetic disorder look more like a half circle or a water drop shape. This means that the red blood cells affected by the Sickle Cells Disease are more fragile than the healthy ones, and this makes the cells less flexible and easier to break.
The biology is the science that studies living things, as one of these objectives is the study of cellular basis of living things. This means that the biology is the science that is in charged of studying this disease, its origin, what causes it and how to manage it in people and stop the abnormality in the red blood cells to have less cases of the disease. For this the people who study the disease use different sciences to have a conclusion on the sickness. The sciences used for the investigation are:
· Chemistry: studies the molecular structure of the healthy red blood cells and the abnormal ones to compare them and notice what affects the cell behavior and shape. As well the effect of the disease on the hemoglobin the protein that carries the oxygen in the blood.
· Physics: studies some of the properties and interaction of matter. So scientists use physics to understand red blood cells behavior and flexibility during their travel around the body and why they break during their travel.
· Mathematics: Is the science that studies numbers and formulas. In other words all the things that has to do with numbers. This science is useful in this study to write the information and quantity for the study. As an example to know how many red blood cells are affected and the percentage of it compared with the complete quantity of blood.
· Geography: This science that studies the region and its characteristics as demography (people). The geography is useful to know how many people are affected by the disease, which particular affects to afro American people and Caribbean people.
· Computer Science: this science is focused on the technological management of data. So for the study of sickle cells disease scientists make up data bases to control how many people have the disease, why and also for other technical studies. Gather information and inform people about it.
· Ethics: The ethics are very important in the management of people with these abnormal cells, because they have the bad genes that are inherit to their sons and it continues the mutant cells. The ethics are useful to know what to do with this people, to let them abort babies, to let them just adopt or what to do to with the sick people to stop the disease.
The biology is the main science that studies this sickness but it also uses different branches of biology so scientists can focus on a specified topic and not in a general way. For this specific disease the biology branches used are: anatomy, a little bit of astrobiology, biochemistry, biogeography, biomedical, cell biology, chorology, endocrinology, genetics, molecular biology, and infectious diseases.
During the process of the disease a lot of levels of organization of matter are affected. This starts with the molecule which change the way phosphorus and nitrogen are arranged and this affects the cells that take an abnormal shape as a long cell or as a long leave, this affects to the blood because the red blood cells are nor normal and don’t have the enough oxygen for the body, and all this affects to the complete body cause it makes the blood chipper of oxygen and easier to break and to have cancer in the blood or a type of anemia which all this affects to a part of the population, people die because of the anemia so it is a domino effect, from the molecule to the population.
In the Sickle Cells Disease the mail problem is that the macromolecules of the hormone of the hemoglobin is affected when it is formed making a weird shape structure without spaces between them so it makes the molecule less flexible and this affects the complete structure. This affects the molecule when it badly arranges itself, then the second level of structure when it forms a worm shape instead of a helix shape, and the third level when it joins with another molecule it makes a mutant red blood cell.
The sad part of the story is that the sickle cells disease is very common and most people that have this problem don’t even know that they have it. So nowadays the governments of different countries are making social movements to introduce and inform citizens about the disease and how to prevent it. Also in some countries the government is thinking about making a law that does not aloud people with this type of anemia to get married and have children. Other solutions are the adoption and the artificial insemination.
In conclusion this is a very serious problem for the society and we need to take care about it and stop the disease for the wellness of the citizens and the people in general.
References:
· Biggs A. Crispen Hagins W, Holliday GW, Kapricka CL, Lundgren L, Mackenzie AH, Rogers WD, Sewer MB, Zinke D. (2009) The Characteristics of life. Biology. Glenco Science McGraw Ill, pages 6-10
· Biggs A. Crispen Hagins W, Holliday GW, Kapricka CL, Lundgren L, Mackenzie AH, Rogers WD, Sewer MB, Zinke D. (2009) The building of blocks of life. Biology. Glenco Science McGraw Ill, pages 166-167
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| This is what happens with the abnormal red blood cells |
