Cancer in Beluga: Response

Immune functions in beluga whales

Natural killer (NK) activity, an important non-specific defense mechanism against viral infections and tumors, was demonstrated in beluga whales using two different methods: “‘Cr release and flow cytometry. Using the “Cr release assay, NK activity in belugas was shown to be higher against K-562 than against YAC-1 cell lines. Moreover, it was enhanced by the addition of human recombinant interle...

Inductive Beluga: Programming Proofs

belugais a proof environment that provides a rich sophisticated infrastructure for implementing formal systems based on the logical framework LF together with a first-order reasoning language for implementing inductive proofs about them following the Curry-Howard

Cancer in wildlife, a case study: beluga from the St. Lawrence estuary, Québec, Canada.

A population of approximately 650 beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) inhabits a short segment of the St. Lawrence estuary (SLE). Over 17 years (1983-1999), we have examined 129 (or 49%) of 263 SLE beluga carcasses reported stranded. The major primary causes of death were respiratory and gastrointestinal infections with metazoan parasites (22%), cancer (18%), and bacterial, viral, and protozoan infe...

The electrocardiogram of a Beluga whale.

The Role of chk2 in Response to DNA Damage in Cancer Cells

Accumulation of gene changes and chromosomal instability in response to cellular DNA damage lead to cancer. DNA damage induces cell cycle checkpoints pathways. Checkpoints regulate DNA replication and cell cycle progression, chromatin restructuring, and apoptosis. Checkpoint kinase 2 (chk2) is activated in response to DNA lesions. ATM phosphorylate chk2. The activated Chk2 kinase can phosphoryl...