Kelly ONeal

Annotated Bib

"CANCER DETECTION/FLUORESCENCE IMAGING: 'Smart Beacons' Target

Cancer Tumors." - BioOptics World. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.
This article is about how smart beacons work in cancer cells. Primary
source. What a smart beacon is a chemical compound specifically
structured in order to fit within a certain receptor that is either unique
to or abundant in cancer cells (in comparison to normal ones). Thanks
to this unique structure, only the abnormal cells are luminescent under
fluorescent light.
This has been extremely impactful in regards to removing tumors
surgically without high risk of unnecessarily taking out normal tissue as
well. While this in itself is a breakthrough, the article also states that
the reason that the compound is important is because it acts as a
'carrier' to deliver the fluorescence to the specific cancer receptors.
The reason that I am using this article is because it gives me insight to
how cancer cells specifically can be targeted. This makes me wonder if
this smart optics system can be paired with inhibitors of autonomic
growth factors in order to prevent growth of tumors. It would be
interesting to talk to a specialist who knows about these things and get
their view on it.

"Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treatment (PDQ)." National

Cancer Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.
This article is a secondary source. It helps to show the process that many
parents of children with leukemia have to go through. The article itself
explains how common the different types of leukemia are, the general
biology of it, risk factors, clinical trials, survival rates, and goes specifically
into the correlation of Down syndrome and leukemia. This is an interesting
approach to looking at leukemia as many researchers focus on the specific
molecular biology of cancer itself whilst only regarding carcinogenic
environmental factors (smoking, genetic predisposition, etc.).
The article itself is significant to my project because it allows me to approach
my topic of leukemia in a different way. Whilst many of my other articles are
from the point of view of a scientist or researcher, this lets me see leukemia
from a patients point of view and get specifics on the relation of Down
syndrome to leukemia and how exactly leukemia begins.

"Diagnosis of Chromosome Abnormalities." Diagnosis of Chromosome

Abnormalities. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.

This article is a secondary source. It tells me what a karyotype is and

how to detect abnormalities. This site specifically is for Down syndrome
and gives examples of how a genetic abnormality can be detected on a
karyotype.
My interest in this article is about questioning how to be able to easily
detect cancer through karyotyping and how proteins are related to
chromosomal abnormalities. This may also have something to do with
the correlation between leukemia and Down syndrome.
Durand, Sbastien, Nicolas Cougot, Florence Mahuteau-Betzer, Chi-Hung
Nguyen, David S. Grierson, Edouard Bertrand, Jamal Tazi, and Fabrice
Lejeune. "Inhibition of Nonsense-mediated MRNA Decay (NMD) by a
New Chemical Molecule Reveals the Dynamic of NMD Factors in Pbodies." The Journal of Cell Biology. The Rockefeller University Press,
n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.
This is a research study that was done by molecular biology experts.
While I am interested in protein expression, RNA is involved in the
expression of proteins. This article explains how the inhibition of mRNA
that led to overexpression of proteins affected the decreased cell
proliferation and an eventual decrease in metastasis rate. The result
partially confirmed the hypothesis, thought the result was that the
normal cells were still affected.

This lets me observe how mRNA and protein expression are related and
that though the proteins may be different in cancer cells, some
components of the mRNA are the same. This could, in the future,
possibly lead to inhibitors of specific mutations rather that a segment
of mRNA.

Lobo, Ingrid. "Chromosome Abnormalities and Cancer

Cytogenetics."Chromosomal Abnormalities and Cancer Cytogenetics.
Nature Publishing Group, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.
This is a primary source. It describes the abnormalities that are shown
on karyotypes of cancer cells versus normal cells and why/how each is
caused. It lists the different types of chromosomal abnormalities and
displays pictures of them on the website.
This is relevant to my topic because, as stated, I am interested in
proteins. I would like to know if mutated chromosomes are passed
down and if the mutation results from or causes mutated mRNA or
overexpression of proteins.
S, Santra, Kaittanis C, and Grimm J. "Result Filters." National Center for
Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web.
14 Feb. 2015.
This is a primary source. It is an experiment done by scientists to
analyze targeted cancer therapies under dyes. By synthesizing a

nanoparticle and inserting it into a cell sample, they were able to

achieve systematic targeting of cancer cells that led to apoptosis.
This is what I am hoping to research- targeted killing of cancer cellsand can use this as a basis for my experiment and research. It also
allows me to get background on how to conduct research and what
types of questions to ask myself on the way.