User:Aspires2/Week-4

Summary (Assignment Week 4)
I have decided to propose a change to the Anacardic acids page because it is incomplete and could use some restructuring to give overall more clarity and allow for more information to be added. The first change I wanted to make would be towards adding a subsection under the 'Other Uses/Applications' chapter. This subsection would discuss cancer treatment, which is where the bulk of the proposed changes I wanted to make would take place in. This is because anacardic acids have shown themselves to be very powerful HAT inhibitors and therefore has a greater application in regards to tumor radiation therapy. I would not likely add any changes to the rest of the Wikipedia page since I wanted to keep the topic grounded in our class (i.e. Epigenetics or something tangentially related to epigenetics).

Other Uses/Applications
''[under this section on the Anacardic acids page, I wanted to make a new section specifically for cancer treatment. I included the references at the bottom that support the necessary addition for this]''

Cancer Treatment
There is also a suspicion that inhibiting anacardic acids may arrest the growth of cancer tumors such as breast cancer. [Kubo et al., 1993] Inhibition of lysine acetyltransferase by anacardic acid was shown to make cancer cells more sensitive to radiation using alternative lengthening of telomeres. Anacardic acids also have been shown to act as an HAT inhibitor, which in turn allows for the tumor cells to become more sensitive to the cytotoxic radiation therapy ."'Anacardic acid (6-nonadecyl salicylic acid), an inhibitor of histone acetyltransferase, suppresses expression of nuclear factor-κB–regulated gene products involved in cell survival, proliferation, invasion, and inflammation through inhibition of the inhibitory subunit of nuclear factor-κBα kinase, leading to potentiation of apoptosis'"Notes:


 * this is the title of another article (reference included) that further goes into discussion with how specifically anacardic acids arrest tumor growth (by targeting genes and silencing them and allowing for apoptosis)
 * this could be used to help illustrate the specific steps that take place

[graphic that pictures the separate steps that take place from this study, with how anacardic acids work with radiation therapy]


 * while reading this it made me realize why radiation therapy can also be stressful/dangerous for the patients undergoing such therapy. because there is no real way to differentiate between whether or not a normal cell or tumor cell is being manipulated, healthy cells could be affected and then also lead to damage in the patients body. Maybe we could add a side note on this and include links to other pages talking about how radiation therapy or negative consequences to radiation
 * also since this is a direct quote this would need to be paraphrased, but just pasted here for the sake of illustrating the idea.

"'These results suggest that AA sensitize prostate cancer cells to radiation therapy by repressing H2AX expression.'"Notes, cont.:


 * this paper (source/reference provided) discusses how anacardic acids facilitate more potent radiation therapy, rather than actually being a substitute for said treatment. This could further add to the discussion above with how such treatments are not necessarily discriminatory for tumor cells.

a graphic could be included here that illustrates that inhibition of lysine transferase by an anacardic acid - perhaps a self made graphic or one taken from the article, whichever is allowed by wikipedia standards]

"Free to a good home"
User:Aspires2/Week-4-Pt2 - [Proposed edit to the Epigenome wiki page]