The sickle cell anemia
In this essay I am going to talk about the sickle cell anemia disease. At the first time I did not know about this disease but then I thought that it was very interesting and important that people knew about it. Because of this in this essay I am going to explain what the sickle cell anemia is about and how the biology has progressed to find a cure for this disease through the years.
For Biology this disease has been a big challenge, because until now this disease does not have cure. But it have been a big step to make this disease less common or make people live a normal life and much longer for example: they have been created exams and tests to identify the people who has this disease and treatments to control and support groups.
This disease has used many sciences for his study; it is not as easy as it seems to achieve all the work they have done until now. Some of the sciences that use the sickle cell anemia are the chemistry; this science studies the structure of the red blood cells. For the sick people is not easy to accept this disease, because of this campaigns and support groups have been created, to guide the people to live a normal life and to transmit a positive message of them to the other people, in this case we could say that we are using Ethics. But as I will explain later this is a blood disease so it cannot analyze as easy as other diseases. To appreciate with precision all the evolution of the disease we need to use technological equipments and we call to this science Computer Science.
One of the most important branches of Biology that this disease use is Genetic, this disease is all about genetic. This disease is inherited from both parents (mom and dad). This disease is more common in Central and South America, The Caribbean and the Middle East.
Another branch is Evolution; It is very important for the doctors to know how this disease evolves so they can update the drugs and the treatments for this disease.
The function of the haemoglobin is to transport oxygen from the lungs to the organs and the body tissues. The haemoglobin in this disease is called haemoglobin S, the problem is that these red blood cells become sickle-shaped (crescent shaped) and have difficulty passing through small blood vessels. When sickle-shaped cells block small blood vessels, less blood can reach that part of the body. Tissue that does not receive a normal blood flow eventually becomes damaged. This is what causes the complications of sickle cell disease. Normal red blood cells contain hemoglobin A, Hemoglobin S and hemoglobin C are abnormal types of hemoglobin. Normal red blood cells are round and can pass through tiny blood tubes. Normally, red blood cells live for about 120 days before new ones replace them, but red blood cells that contain haemoglobin S only live normally 16 days. Some of the symptoms that this disease can present are:
· Chest Pain
· Bone pain
· Shortness of breath
· Dizzines
· Headache
- Coldness in the hands and feet
- Pale skin
In this disease the cells are affected because of the mutations, the cells change the normal shape.Also it affects the organs because this red blood cells do not transport the enough oxygen to them.
The haemoglobin is a protein, because it transports oxygen from the lungs to the organs and the proteins are defined by the genetic.
Hemoglobin exhibits characteristics of both the tertiary and quaternary structures of proteins. Most of the amino acids in hemoglobin form alpha helices, connected by short non-helical segments. Hydrogen bonds stabilize the helical sections inside this protein, causing attractions within the molecule, folding each polypeptide chain into a specific shape. Hemoglobin's quaternary structure comes from its four subunits in roughly a tetrahedral arrangement.
The hemoglobin molecule is an assembly of four globular protein subunits. Each subunit is composed of a protein chain tightly associated with a non-protein heme group.
Some treatments that the doctors had created to be less painful or to live longer are:
· Bone marrow transplants ( may offer a cure in a small number of sickle cell anemia cases.)
· Medicines and Fluids
· Hydroxyurea ( make less pain)
In conclusion I learned that this disease does not have cure but it is impressive how biology and other sciences had helped to find a cure. In my opinion I think that in a few years maybe the doctors would find a cure and in the mid time we can help them making awareness to the other people about this disease.
References
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