RE: Lab Diaries #5 - Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) of a Large-Scale Biological Data, Part I
Hey @scienceangel, thank you for your contributions! This is a wonderful blog.
In each of our cells there are many, many (and one more time - many!) signal transduction pathways that include thousands of proteins, which are tightly regulated to keep our cells alive and functioning. In cancer cells, due to the activation of oncogenes, many of those pathways are deregulated to provide advantages to cancer cells over normal cells.
So does that basically mean that the more protein we consume the more dangerous it can be for our health? (Don't get mad at me if that's a dumb question :P)
Thank you so much for providing detailed information regarding the use of the GSEA software. Personally I'm an Engineer so I will never get to use this software, however I do appreciate you taking the time to create this tutorial as I know how vital this can be for young scientists in your field. (We all depend on software and tutorials :P)
Please keep up the great work!
Thank you very much!
Actually, it is a very good question.
It is quite normal that we ingest a lot of things on daily basis that are not necessary/in excess for our organism/cells at given moment - too much water, salt, carbs, fats, proteins, etc. Our cells of course have mechanisms of keeping homeostasis of intracellular environment, so when we ingest too much proteins for example, they will be digested in our gastrointestinal tract down to amino acids, which then hit the bloodstream. Cells will take up the amount of amino acids they need (especially muscle cells), and the rest/excess amino acids will be broken down in the liver to form ammonia. The liver converts the ammonia into urea, because ammonia is toxic. At last, urea is excreted from the body through the kidneys.
So when you ingest more proteins than your cells need, it will be just more work for your liver and kidneys :)
There are studies connecting red/processed meat intake with the increased risk of bowel cancer. This is however, not due to increased protein intake, but due to carcinogens found in processed meat, and if we are talking about red, non-processed meat, some evidence suggest that chemicals formed during digestion may damage the cells that line the bowel. Other causes may be the fat content, and the way it is processed or cooked; or just because people who eat preferentially red meat usually have low intake of "protective foods" such as fruit and vegetables or wholegrain cereals.
So take-home advice - make sure that you eat everything in moderate quantities (balanced diet), have plenty of physical activity, avoid smoking and drinking too much alcohol, and you'll be fine ;)
Hey, thank you SO much for taking the time to leave such a detailed response, I truly appreciate that!
So even excessive water consumption can harm our health? I've been drinking TOO much water for years!! Should I worry?
Again, thank you so much for providing such deep information in this thread! Your blog was spectacular to say the least, but you also wrote another mini post in response to my comment!
Stay awesome!
"Excessive" here means that you would have to drink 10-20 liters of water in a few hours to get hyponatremia and cerebral edema and possibly die :)