Part V: Crime & Punishment
Part VI: Immortality & A Kingdom that Never Decays
Part VII: Days of Allah
Then will not they use intellect?
Apart from the fact that humans have two genome duplications, humans are essentially very similar to a jellyfish.
Cancer cells don't specialise
Unlike healthy cells, cancer cells don't carry on maturing or become so specialised. Cells mature so that they are able to carry out their function in the body. This process of maturing is called differentiation.
In cancer, the cells often reproduce very quickly and don't have a chance to mature. Because the cells aren't mature, they don't work properly. And because they divide quicker than usual, there's a higher chance that they will pick up more mistakes in their genes. This can make them even more immature so that they divide and grow even more quickly.
Cancer cells don't repair themselves or die
Normal cells can repair themselves if their genes become damaged. This is known as DNA repair. Cells self destruct if the damage is too bad. Scientists call this process apoptosis.
In cancer cells, the molecules that decide whether a cell should repair itself are faulty. For example, a protein called p53 usually checks if the cell can repair its genes, or if the cell should die. But many cancers have a faulty version of p53, so they don't repair themselves properly.
This leads to more problems. New gene faults or mutations can make cancer cells:
- grow faster
- spread to other parts of the body
- resistant to treatment
Cancer cells can ignore the signals that tell them to self destruct. So they don't undergo apoptosis when they should. Scientists call this making cells immortal.
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