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DNA change with seeding asbestos molecules in living cells

Author: Danut Dragoi, PhD

As a fact, it is well known that some substances are producing DNA changes in human body. One of those substances is asbestos, see link in here, in which debatable reasons are revisited with less convincing arguments. One important aspect of the interaction of asbestos with living cells is its symmetry which is reflected in its physical and chemical properties. One important feature of substances interacting with DNA structure is to have element symmetry in common. DNA macromolecule is a low symmetry molecule and is expected that DNA’s elements of symmetry to be found in asbestos group symmetry. Looking for crystal structure of asbestos we find the powder diffraction file PDF-21-543 that contains that information, see link in here.

From symmetry point of view, we can distinguish the chirality symmetry of asbestos, which requires an axis “2” of symmetry or a mirror plan “m” that both cross the center of the unit cell, see link in here.

A schematic of chemical make up of asbestos can be seen below, see link in here

Image SOURCE: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Chrysotile#section=Top

At first glance we see that the chemical formula in the picture above, H4Mg3O9Si2, corresponds to that of chrysotile, one distinguished form of asbestos. We notice the ionic bond between the Silicon tetrahedrons SiO4 using Mg++ ion between two O- ions. Since the ionic bonds are not too strong, we can imagine that a SiO4 tetrahedron can replace a PO4 tetrahedron in DNA back bone with important consequences on DNA functionality in human body. As a fact, not all asbestos structures produce cancers in human body, therefore the chirality symmetry must play an important role. From this point of view we can state, with some degree of certainty, that asbestos of D-form chirality, that fits the DNA chirality, is the culprit in the asbestos induced cancers.

Looking at the rate of cancers over 50 years we can find that the rate of cancers increased, see link in here. How we explain this? Some reasons are linked with aging, see link in here. However, other factors exists such as silicosis and its role on lung cancer, see link in here.

In the studies considered by IARC (NB-International Agency for Research on Cancer), they reported that lung cancer risk tended to increase with cumulative exposure to RCS (NB- respirable crystalline silica), duration of exposure, peak intensity of exposure, the presence of silicosis and length of follow-up time from diagnosis of silicosis. However, the findings were not consistent, i.e. those that observed a relationship with cumulative exposure did not always observe one with duration of exposure and vice versa. Again, here is the symmetry play, where not all silica is in D-form chirality to produce cancers.

As we have seen before, the presence of silicon tetrahedrons in the asbestos structure suggests that Silica is a major player in producing cancers. The main source of dangerous silica is not only in asbestos, it is in any mining and silicate processing industry, in which cement industry uses large quantities of powdered quartz, sometimes in very fine grain size that could be in the nano-size range. The roads development in the last 100 years, based on cement, is suggesting a correlation with cancers development.

Source

http://www.asbestos.com/news/2013/02/01/health-risk-of-chrysotile/

https://books.google.com/books?id=jnqOAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&dq=asbestos+space+group&source=bl&ots=0TplLnD9Bb&sig=4qQ6LrGbwcFV1EwcIgZKFOzPEr4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiBiI3jqdjLAhVBXGMKHW6ZDg4Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=asbestos%20space%20group&f=false.

http://www.xtal.iqfr.csic.es/Cristalografia/parte_03-en.html.

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Chrysotile#section=Top

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Chrysotile#section=Top

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2003/pr27/en/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2003/pr27/en/

http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2015/02/04/why-are-cancer-rates-increasing/

http://occmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/59/2/89.full

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Chrysotile#section=Top