Case Study

Case Study 1: Microtubules are important in cells that multiply because of their involvement in the division process through the formation of the mitotic spindle. This makes the tubulin and microtubules useful for anticancer agents. Microtubule-targeting agents can be divided into two groups: stabilizing and destabilizing. Stabilizing healthy cells will promote their cell division, while destabilizing cancer cells stops abnormal cell division. It is effective in treating cancer because the disruption of the mitotic spindle, halts the cell cycle at the metaphase-anaphase transition and, eventually, resulting in cell death thus treating the cancer. Case Study 2: Proteins are sorted, modified, and tagged for their appropriate destination in the Golgi complex. In cystic fibrosis, the tags for the important protein destined for the plasma membrane are deficient, so it actually never gets the signal to travel to the plasma membrane. The Golgi apparatus places these dysfunctional tags on the protein thus keep it from transporting to the plasma membrane. In other cases, the problem could occur at the rough endoplasmic reticulum because the proteins’ membranes are not being manufactured correctly causing the membrane protein to be defective. If it is defective this will cause the protein itself to not accept the tags.