CANCER'S CAUSE, CANCER'S CURE (7 page)
Mirko was in no way bothered by the boss’ disinterest in or contempt for his work simply because our dauntless researcher preferred to work alone. Although independent, he developed his convictions from observations he made during his experiments, while drawing hypotheses and theories to explain such observations.
Dr. Beljanski continued to work at the Pasteur Institute for almost twenty more years under Monod as it had the facilities and tools necessary for studying enzymes, nucleic acids, plants and animals. The latter was particularly important since Mirko wanted his results to be applicable to the general laws of the living world. In those twenty years, no matter what else occurred between the two rivals, Beljanski’s research work at the Pasteur netted great benefits for the health of all humankind. Concepts of disease development evolved and therapies to reverse such diseases resulted from these efforts. Eventually people with various illnesses, especially those involving cancer, found that this humble biochemist had much to offer them.
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Destabilized DNA:
Cancer Lies in the Structure of DNA
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efore the advent of antibiotics, strep infection was a major killer of infants; staph infection claimed the lives of 80 percent of those whose wounds were infected with it, and anyone who came down with tuberculosis or pneumonia basically had their death certificates handed to them. These were diseases that no one knew how to fight until Alexander Fleming, a bacteriologist working at St. Mary’s hospital in London, found that a mold on a discarded culture plate had somehow killed the staphylococci bacteria that had been on the same plate. It was 1928 and, of course, the mold in question was penicillin. Suddenly diseases considered deadly were now curable, and the world rejoiced.
Today cancer, seconded only by AIDS, has become the most dreaded of modern diseases for the same simple reason pneumonia was so feared less than a hundred years ago. It appears to be very difficult to cure. Throughout the forty years that Dr. Mirko Beljanski dedicated to researching DNA and RNA in the human cell, he not only revealed the secrets of what happens to the DNA in a cell that has been affected by a carcinogen, but he discovered a way to counteract the consequences of the cancerous DNA cell. In so doing, he offered a natural alternative to harsh chemical treatments. While cancer will always be potentially deadly, it doesn’t have to be so overwhelmingly frightening.
To understand how important Beljanski’s findings are to the problem of cancer, we have to first understand a little about the most fundamental parts of a cell. Biology lesson number one is that there are two acids in the center, or nucleus, of a cell. These are called nucleic acids and are better known by the terms DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) and RNA (Ribonucleic Acid). In chapter 4, I will talk about the breakthrough discoveries Dr. Beljanski developed to handle cancer at the DNA level. But in order to appreciate the enormous importance of his findings, it is first necessary to delve into the discoveries he made about the structure of DNA and why, when that structure starts replicating out of control, you develop cancer.
To comprehend cancerous DNA, let us first define cancer. “Cancer” is the name given to that class of diseases in which the body’s cells become abnormal, then continue to subdivide, and replicate themselves in the abnormal state indefinitely. Healthy cells are preprogrammed to die at a certain point. This preprogrammed cell death present in healthy cells, called apoptosis, somehow gets shut off in a cancer cell. These rogue cells multiply and multiply, forming a tumor which crowds out the healthy cells in whatever body tissue it’s formed. Eventually these cancerous cells metastasize, which means the cancer spreads and forms more tumors in other parts of the body.
It’s no wonder cancer is such a feared disease. It isn’t an infection, which means that something like bacteria has invaded the cells. You can kill bacteria. But how do you regulate cells that grow with no control, can spread quickly to other parts of the body, and seem to defy all restrictive treatment that modern medicine throws at them? To compound the problem, there are over one hundred different types of cancer, and not all cancer cells behave the same.
The Form and Function of DNA
All through the late 1950s, the scientific world was abuzz with the discoveries of the three biochemists/microbiologists credited with uncovering the structure of DNA. James Watson, Ph.D., Francis Crick, Ph.D., and Maurice Wilkins, Ph.D., building on the X-ray images created by radiation expert Rosalind Franklin, Ph.D., unveiled the power and beauty of DNA. In 1962 Watson, Crick, and Wilkins, with their specialties in the physical sciences (biology, chemistry, and physics), were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their 1953 discovery. Unfortunately, Dr. Franklin was not included in this group because the Nobel is only awarded to a maximum of three scientists, and they have to be living. Dr. Franklin, who had discovered the X-ray images of DNA first, had died of radiation poisoning previous to the 1962 award. There is some evidence that her work is not fully recognized or acknowledged, but whatever the case, these four scientists gave the world one of the most important scientific discoveries in the history of humankind.
The actual identification of DNA is attributed to a scientist named Avery in 1944, but even earlier investigations going back to the turn of the twentieth century were concerned with DNA as genetic material (Boveri from 1902 to 1914 and Sutton in 1903). The major breakthrough Drs. Watson, Crick, and Wilkins found was that the long strands of DNA sitting in the center of the cell, its nucleus, are structured in a formation that looks like a spiraling ladder. That is, of course, the double helix, and it’s called that because a helix could be considered as a spiral or anything twisted. A double helix is simply two such spirals twisted together. Here you can see the shape of the spiraling ladder.
The DNA contains all the information needed to make and control every cell within a living organism. In a way it is wonderfully simple. The structure of the double helix includes both the sides and the rungs of the ladder. The sides of the ladder are made up of a combination of the most fundamental elements in nature: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus. These elements combine to form sugar phosphates, but they are not the important part of the ladder for our purposes.
The rungs of the DNA ladder are made up of four specific nitrogen- containing molecules that are also known as the nitrogenous base, or “bases” of DNA. These four molecules are thymine (T), adenine (A), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). These bases always come in pairs. Thymine (T) will only pair with adenine (A) (also called the “pyrimidine” base pair). Cytosine (C) will only pair with guanine (G) (also called the “purine” base pair). Each pair together is called a base pair, and it doesn’t matter in what order the molecules in the base pair are placed. Sometimes it’s TA; sometimes, AT. Sometimes it’s CG; sometimes, GC.
The Two Functions of DNA
DNA is probably the most vital or consequential molecule for life, since it carries instructions for the maintenance of our bodies. DNA has two main functions:
1. Genetic—DNA carries instructions for the maintenance of a given species through the nature and the positioning of its genes. It does this by permitting specific RNA molecules to “read” the message contained in the genes and then, through a series of steps, produce specific proteins to help manage the organism (this is the protein synthesis I briefly outlined in chapter 1. Tens of thousands of different human gene-types exist, with most geneticists putting the total number of genes carried by our chromosomes at approximately one hundred thousand.
2. Self-Replicating—DNA assures self-replication and duplication, which is the first step in cell multiplication. The DNA replicates itself, causing the cell to grow twice its size. Once the cell has replicated itself in its entirety, the cell then divides into two. This process happens trillions of times a day in our bodies. (Figure 8 for a full explanation of DNA replication).
In terms of genetics, the pairing of the bases together are called genes, and they are the basis of all the information that is carried in your body. Knowing this is important simply because your genes govern all of your physical appearance—eye color, hair color, height, sex—every property that has to do with the physical aspect of our bodies. Even more amazing is that most of the body’s cells contain a complete sample of our DNA. If you watch any crime scene show on T.V., you’re familiar with the importance of DNA as a unique marker for any one person.
Self-replication, the duplication of the DNA molecule, is crucial for the stability and durability of the species because that is how cells produce more cells which cause life to continue.
The Importance of Structure
Indeed, DNA has proven itself to be the most significant molecule in the creation of life. It is closer to perfection than anything else created by nature, God, or man. According to Monod and his loyal followers, it would almost be a sin to believe otherwise. But privileging the importance of the genetic aspects of DNA disallows the importance of its structure. With the discovery of the double helix of DNA, however, the microscopic world of a cell’s nucleus was opened up, and the possibilities it presented in terms of understanding disease and, more importantly, how to cure or even prevent diseases in the first place were vast.
Rather than make assumptions over the course of his professional life researching DNA, enzymes, and RNA, Dr. Beljanski studied all aspects of pathology and chose instead to test and observe abnormalities first hand. His findings were almost always original and illuminating. He was a genuine investigator, concerned with using the work he did at his laboratory bench, rather than relying on published books and journals for his information, to help the betterment of humankind.
It was not the genetic aspect of DNA (the part that controls the pattern of physical characteristics of a human body) that ultimately caught Beljanski’s attention. Rather it was the structure itself, the way that the DNA molecule was put together in its double helix formation that fascinated the researcher.
More to the point, Beljanski’s meticulous original research led him to conclude in the late 1980s that the major source of cancerous cell behavior is caused by structural corruption of the DNA.
This conclusion is revolutionary for one simple reason: once DNA became the element of the cell to study, the scientific world focused on the mechanism of gene mutation as the basis for cancer from the late 1950s onward. Because in part to scientists like Monod, the prevailing idea of cancer is that it is caused by genetic mutations in the cellular DNA.
When DNA splits and copies itself, it can undergo mutations, alterations, and breakages or other modifications in its structure, all of which lead to alterations in the cell. A mutation is a genetic change that is inherited by all the offspring of the original cell in which the mutation occurred. Luckily, there are systems in our body able to repair these mutations, but sometimes they do not or cannot repair the problem. A cell or an organism affected by a mutation is described as a mutant. Something that causes mutation in a cell is called a mutagen. The effects of many mutations are well known and those that affect our physical appearance may be striking, as in the case when two fingers are fused together when a baby is born. The most common mutation we’re familiar with is Down’s syndrome. Mutations happen all the time in a cell, but our cells are programmed to repair the defect and oftentimes the mutation remains harmless even if it isn’t corrected.