The Symbolism of Water. Many works of literature use symbols to represent abstract ideas. One symbol that is commonly used is water. Water is a viable symbol because it is versatile. It can be used to represent many different ideals because water in itself is ever changing. Water is used in many works to represent such ideals as death, life, love, betrayal, purity, holiness, and so on.
Alkylating Agents. Alkylating agents were one of the earliest classes of drugs used to treat cancer, beginning in the 1940âs. The biggest weakness of most cancer cells is that they are very sensitive to DNA damage. Alkylating agents work by reacting with the proteins that bond together to form the very delicate double helix structure of a DNA molecule, adding an alkyl group to some or all of them.
Selective alkylation, or adding parts to the chain with the desired functional groups, is used, especially if there is no commonly available biological precursor. Alkylation with only one carbon is termed methylation. In oil refining contexts, alkylation refers to a particular alkylation of isobutane with olefins. For upgrading of petroleum, alkylation produces synthetic C7âC8 alkylate, which is a premium blending stock for gasoline. In medicine, alkylation of DNA is used in chemotherapy to damage the DNA of cancer cells. Alkylation is accomplished with the class of drugs called alkylating antineoplastic agents. U.S. National Library of Medicine (0.00 / 0 votes) Rate this definition: