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.
Alkylating agents cause cross-linking of DNA strands, abnormal base pairing, or DNA strand breaks, thus preventing the cell from dividing. Drugs in this group belong to the CCNS category and kill cells in various and multiple phases of the cell cycle. However, they are most effective against cells in the G0 phase.