Monday, October 12, 2009

Cancer Research: The Beginning

By Jason Myers

In the year 1938, the cancer scientist and researcher Paul Gerhardt Seeger, M.D., revealed that the true cause of the cancerous degeneration of a cell results from the destruction of a specific respiratory enzyme, cytochrome oxidase. In other terms, cell malignancy is attributed to the disruption of oxygen usage, or cell respiration.

Dr. Seeger fulfilled experiments with hundreds of histo-chemical procedures in the Department of Cell and Virus Research in the Robert Koch Institute of Berlin, Germany. Later findings at Humbolt University in Berlin in 1956, after approximately ten years of work at Charite Hospital, affirmed his earlier research findings in 1938. What Dr. Seeger found was that inactivation or destruction of the enzyme cytochrome oxidase causes a dysfunction of the metabolism in the early phases of the generation of energy in the mitochondria.

Mitochondria accomplish their function of generating energy thru an oxygen-requiring process known as oxidative phosphorylation. Resulting from a series of biochemical reactions, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are broken down into smaller units. Carbon dioxide and hydrogen are discharged along the way. The carbon dioxide, a type of toxic waste, is quickly discarded. The hydrogen ion is carried by the electron transport chain, ultimately meeting up with molecular oxygen to form water. The energy generated from our food components is then stored in the form of a universal energy molecule called adenosine-triphosphate (ATP).

When the enzyme cytochrome oxidase is inactivated or destroyed, excess hydrogen piles up in the cell as oxidative phosphorylation comes to a stop. The cell still needs energy, however, and is forced to shift over to a less efficient method of energy synthesis that takes place in the surrounding cytoplasm. This results in the transformation of only about 20% of the potential energy that could be available, and only about a fifth of possible ATP storage. Less energy is generated for the cell's use, and low energy is stored.

With the cell's main sources of energy, syntheses now greatly diminished, laying down the foundation for cancerous degeneration. Any problems involving the operation and functioning of the mitochondria have a bad effect on all energy-requiring functions of our body. More than just the cell in which the malfunctioning mitochondria is situated can be affected, the lowered vitality can also have on impact on other organs, or even the entire body.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment