Inside the diseased cells

Genes are instructions for cells, where the rules of their behavior are listed. When the genes are damaged, the metabolism inside the diseased cells changes. They begin to release into the blood poisonous substances. The unfolded attack of sick cells, using poisonous substances, leads to the death of the body.

Genes are instructions for cells, where the rules of their behavior are listed. When the genes are damaged, the metabolism inside the diseased cells changes

When removing a malignant tumor in the body, there are still many more dangerous diseased cells. The fact is that they do not grow all together, but creep in different directions, wherever.

There was an idea to use radioactive elements for the destruction of sick cells. Sometimes they were injected in the form of tiny balls or needles directly into the tumor. But in this case a good result was obtained, as long as the tumor diseased cells did not have time to spread. The scientists faced the task of finding a way to introduce poison into each diseased cell and kill it without touching the healthy cells.

There were substances that are urgently needed for rapidly growing diseased tumor cells and are almost completely not used by the rest. The scientists decided to bet on them. Here the idea was born to supply the carrier molecule with the atom of the radioactive substance. If the decay of the radioactive atom occurs inside the diseased cell, it will be destroyed.

To implement this idea, it was necessary to find a reliable "messenger", which under no pretext in a healthy cage will not climb. Then it was necessary to find such a "bomb" that it would destroy only one single building inside which is located, and on the facades of neighboring, possibly healthy cells, not a single "window" would flinch.

The search for a mini-bomb was a long one. Finally, the choice fell on tritium - superheavy hydrogen. It is a radioactive isotope and differs from ordinary hydrogen in that it is almost three times heavier, since its nucleus besides the proton also contains two neutrons. Under normal conditions, radioactive decay of tritium occurs: it turns into an isotope of helium and emits an electron - the so-called beta rays.

Tritium is a very weak bomb. In the "explosion" of its fragment - an electron can fly within a cell a distance of a maximum of 6,5 microns. In comparison with the size of a sick cell, this is not very much. Even if the bomb explodes near the wall, its fragments do not reach the neighboring healthy cell.

As we have already said, chemically, tritium differs little from ordinary hydrogen. If a molecule of a substance actively consumed by diseased cells replaces several hydrogen atoms with tritium, a self-propelled atomic bomb will result. Wandering through the body, she settles in the tissue of a malignant tumor and, "exploding", will destroy one of the sick cells.

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