Tag Archives: malignant

Recent progress in apoptosis triggering facilitated by HeLa Studies

DOI: 10.2478/amma-2023-0022

Objective: Cancer is a leading cause of death globally, prompting numerous efforts to find effective treatments. HeLa cells, derived from Henrietta Lacks’ cancerous squamous cells, have played a crucial role in cancer research due to their origin, resistance, and rapid growth. They are particularly useful for studying ways of cellular death triggering, or apoptosis, without an immune response. Thus, the objective of this paper was to review the latest publications on the subject of HeLa apoptosis so that a brief view to be available on the otherwise so extended subject.
Methodology: To provide a concise review of the extensive research on this topic, a search was conducted using the phrase “HeLa cells apoptosis triggering” on PubMed. The articles that were published in English, in the last 6 years, presenting results sustained by valid morphological and chemical apoptotic changes present in cells, were selected and reviewed. A comprehensive table presenting the apoptotic mechanism exerted by each substance was made to assure a concise presentation of the results.
Results: The reviewed studies have shown that many natural substances exhibit pro-apoptotic activity on malignant cells and can be used as chemotherapeutic agents. Some synthetic molecules were showed to have good results too. Important facts about these substances, their intervention site and metabolic modifications are presented in a concise form. The use of nano-carriers for targeted delivery was shown to increase their specificity towards cancerous cells.
Conclusions: HeLa cells were a groundbreaking discovery that revolutionized scientific research. Although there is ongoing research towards cancer cures using HeLa cells, there are still many trials and considerations that need to be addressed. With the countless existing HeLa cell lines, the scientific possibilities for research are endless.

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Tumors of the Oro-Facial System

The increasing number of malignant cases in the oro-facial area represents by their increasing number lately a new problem regarding the treatment and diagnosis. This cases present an increased difficulty of diagnostic and treatment, because they are usually diagnosticated in lately stages. Patients are often unaware of the gravity of their situation due to the lack of specific or almost absent symptomatology.
The incriminated factors and co-factors incriminated in the development of the malignant manifestations are of multiple origins: use of tobacco products, especially associated to alcohol abuse, chronical topic irritation of the oral mucosa, genetic predisposition or some types of viruses (human papilloma virus type 16 and 18 and herpes virus). Also factors like: environmental modifications, age, alimentation or pharmaceutical drug usage can be incriminated for the increasing pathology of the last decades, especially in well developed countries both from Europe and North America.
Our presentation is based on the case of a 61 years old male, showing almost the typical premises of a malignant pathology starting from the evolution of the oral lesion and the general and dental pathology status with the correlation of the objective and subjective examination.
The lesion usually benefits of surgical treatment, followed by radiotherapy and oro-facial reconstruction, that can imply both plastic surgery and prosthetic rehabilitation, as was the case of our patient. Of most importance remains the moment of the prosthetic treatment and its correlation with radiotherapy, regarding the tissue modification that irradiation has on this level.

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