How alcohol damages DNA and causes cancer

Scientists have shown how alcohol damages DNA in stem cells, helping to explain why drinking increases the risk of cancer, according to latest research. Researchers used mice to show how alcohol exposure leads to permanent genetic damage. Scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, gave diluted alcohol, chemically known as ethanol, to mice.

They then used chromosome analysis and DNA sequencing to examine the genetic damage caused by acetaldehyde, a harmful chemical produced when the body processes alcohol. They found that acetaldehyde can break and damage DNA within blood stem cells leading to rearranged chromosomes and permanently altering the DNA sequences within these cells.

It is important to understand how the DNA blueprint within stem cells is damaged because when healthy stem cells become faulty, they can give rise to cancer. These new findings therefore help us to understand how drinking alcohol increases the risk of developing 7 types of cancer including common types like breast and bowel.

Some cancers develop due to DNA damage in stem cells while some damage occurs by chance. The study also examined how the body tries to protect itself against damage caused by alcohol. The first line of defence is a family of enzymes called aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDH). These enzymes break down harmful acetaldehyde into acetate, which our cells can use as a source of energy.

In the study, when mice lacking the critical ALDH enzyme - ALDH2 - were given alcohol, it resulted in four times as much DNA damage in their cells compared to mice with the fully functioning ALDH2 enzyme. The second line of defence used by cells is a variety of DNA repair systems which, most of the time, allow them to fix and reverse different types of DNA damage. But they don't always work and some people carry mutations which mean their cells aren't able to carry out these repairs effectively.

The study highlights that not being able to process alcohol effectively can lead to an even higher risk of alcohol-related DNA damage and therefore certain cancers. But it's important to remember that alcohol clearance and DNA repair systems are not perfect and alcohol can still cause cancer in different ways, even in people whose defence mechanisms are intact.
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Causes of IVF failure

The most important variables involved in a successful IVF cycle are a healthy egg, normal, functional sperm, and a uterus that is capable of nurturing the growth of a baby.

The human egg is a very complex structure, it is prone to damage and this can render it nonfunctional which may leads to abnormal distribution of chromosomes and nonviable embryo.

During IVF, cell stage, embryo grade and the rate of cell division will determined embryo selection, embryos that have developed to at least the 6 cell stage have a much better prognosis for success than embryos that have 5 or fewer cells on day three.

The egg retrieval and the embryo transfer to correct location are very important to the success of an IVF cycle. Retrieving fewer eggs than expected, or failure to retrieve any eggs, can affect the success rate.

The IVF laboratory factors can lead to failure of IVF. If the equipment are not functioning properly, poor control of oxygen concentration, carbon dioxide concentration, and other factors such as humidity, PH, temperature and light.
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Drinking of alcohol makes you older

 Alcoholic patients had shortened telomere lengths, placing them at greater risk for age-related diseases, like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, dementia and liver disease. The more alcohol people drink, the more their cells age.

Telomeres are parts of human cells that affect how cells age, the protein caps on the ends of human chromosomes are markers of aging and complete health.

Excess drinking of alcohol leads to lost of replication of cell tiny bit of telomere so they get shorter with age. But some people may have shorter telomeres for other reasons.

Alcoholic patients have a shortened telomere length because excess drinking causes biological aging at a cellular level.

Scientists examined patients undergoing alcoholism treatment in hospital, they also examined their habits, DNA samples and drinking histories

They discovered that they have thiamine deficiency TD and it causes neuron impairments such as Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome which can leads to braid disorder, coma and death in alcoholic patients.

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How to prevent type 1 diabetes

White blood cells make antibodies against pathogens or other invaders in healthy people. Pancreatic beta cells produce insulin, the hormone that provides fuel to the body's cells by transporting glucose.

 B lymphocytes plays a major role in activating the autoreactive T cells (T lymphocytes) that then destroy the pancreatic beta cells leading to type 1 diabetes.

These damaged cells fail to take glucose into cells, the glucose build up in the blood can damage nerves, blood vessels and organs.

The researchers used a gene manipulation approach to identify a potential metabolic target that would eliminate the B cells that initiate diabetes.

They demonstrated that non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice treated with a specific (AID/RAD51) pathway inhibitor had more of B cells that were capable of suppressing diabetogenic T cell and reduced T1D development.

Antibody production of B cells turn on the gene known as activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), which acts as a molecular scissors that cut the chromosomes within the B-cell.

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Age-related female infertility

Female infertility is inability to contribute to conception or unable to carry a pregnancy to full time.

Researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Center have new explanation for female infertility.

They discovered that microtubules that coordinate chromosome segregation during cell division behave abnormally in older eggs.

Women are born with a fixed number of eggs, which remain inactive in the ovaries, one egg is released every month during menstruation.

One of the causes of infertility in female is defect in egg that causes abnormal number of chromosomes, the egg can cause miscarriage and down syndromes, fertility decline start at 35 years.