Paulina Pavon V. 17/09/2010
http://paupavon.blogspot.com/
PBL 1. Sickle Cells disease. A study case.
Many thousand years ago terrible and deadly diseases arrive to West Africa bringing dead and misery, this disease is called malaria.
Malaria one of the sickle cells diseases is caused by tiny parasite carry by mosquitoes. People became infected with the parasite through mosquito´s bite. It make takes just a few short week to the parasite to destroy the human red blood cells necessary for spreading oxygen.
To study the disease first experts need to know were the problem is for that they study the cellular bases, the energy metabolism, the evolution, the genetic bases and the diversity. And then they can know were the problem is, in this case the problem is the cellular bases and the genetic bases. For the experts to know all the necessary information they use some sciences that are chemistry, mathematics to know the percent of the people affected, geography to know in which more countries the disease is located, computer science to see the red blood cells and the genes through computers and finally ethics.
Now we know that they are levels of organization with this disease some of this levels are affected. The levels affected are molecules, cells were the bad and good genes are located, the tissues because they are cells acting together, the organ, the system that is a group of organs, of course the organism that is person with the disease, the population because the person with the malaria disease can passed the disease to their children and the last one the biological community.
Macromolecules are also involved in the disease in this case the proteins and the one affected is called hemoglobin that is a protein that is found in the red blood cells were the main problem of Malaria is. The hemoglobin molecule is gathering of four global protein subunits each subunits is composed of a protein chain linked to a non-protein heme group. Hemoglobin is a protein attached to red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
Hemoglobin bonds with oxygen in the lungs, exchanges it for carbon dioxide at cellular level, and then transports the carbon dioxide back to the lungs to be exhaled.
The hemoglobin protein has levels of structure that are primary structure, secondary structure, tertiary structure and quaternary structure.
The levels of proteins structure are also affected by the mutation, the ones affected are the primary that is the number and sequence of amino acids; the secondary: the attraction among the amino acids; the tertiary: the folding of the molecules and the fourth level that is the union of two or more polypeptide chains.
This disease have consequence in the levels of organization in this case the most important is the cells because if you have a bad gene you are affecting it, also the tissue, the organ, the system, the organisms and the most important the population why the population, because if you get married with a person with bad genes your children can have the disease and the children of your children too.
This disease talks about ethics because there are treatments that you can follow and one of those treatments is to destroy or create life those babies that are manipulated have the rights to live even if they have a disease. They have the right to live and enjoy what life offer. Another way to prevent it is the blood test that consists in a study to know if you have the bad gene and when you know you have it or not you will have the decision and the responsibility to be pregnant and have children that may have the gene. In my opinion the better option if you have the bad gene is to adopt a baby.
In conclusion Malaria is a sickle cell disease that destroys the human red blood cells necessary for spreading oxygen. The disease affects many levels of organization beginning from the molecule to the population. Some of the sciences are used to know more about this disease the most important is chemistry, geography, mathematics, computer science and ethics. The macromolecules are also involved; one of the most important is the hemoglobin protein that is located in the red blood cells where the main problem of the disease born. There is also involved ethics why, because of the treatments you are going to use and the decisions you may choose, create or destroy a live.
References
Handouts
Video of evolution of sicke cell malaria
