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Folate Receptor-Targeted Delivery Of Small Interfering Rna To Cancer Cells, Yilin Zhang
Folate Receptor-Targeted Delivery Of Small Interfering Rna To Cancer Cells, Yilin Zhang
Dissertations
The vitamin folic acid (folate, FA) has been extensively explored as a targeting ligand to deliver a variety of diagnostic/prognostic/therapeutic agents into various tumors through the assistance of its receptor – the folate receptor (FR). FR is over-expressed in many types of human cancer and can mediate internalization of FA-conjugates through an endocytic pathway. The discovery of small interfering RNA (siRNA), which is cable of inducing potent gene silencing in a sequence-specific manner, provides an excellent molecular tool to suppress aberrant gene expression in malignancies, and therefore siRNA has the potential to revolutionize cancer therapeutics. Towards the goal of developing …
New Algorithms For Protein Structure Comparison And Protein Structure Prediction, Zaixin Lu
New Algorithms For Protein Structure Comparison And Protein Structure Prediction, Zaixin Lu
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Proteins show a great variety of 3D conformations, which can be used to infer their evolutionary relationship and to classify them into more general groups; therefore algorithms of protein structure alignment, protein similarity search and protein structure prediction are very helpful for protein biologists. We developed new algorithms for the problems in this field. The algorithms are tested with structures from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and SCOP, a Structure Classification of Protein Database. The experimental results show that our tools are more efficient than some well known systems for finding similar protein structures and predicting protein structures.
Identification Of Phosphatases Involved In E2f-Associated Apoptosis, Liza D. Morales Smith
Identification Of Phosphatases Involved In E2f-Associated Apoptosis, Liza D. Morales Smith
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Retinoblastoma (Rb) is a tumor suppressor protein that controls a critical checkpoint between the G1 phase and the S phase of the cell cycle. Rb is able to suppress cell proliferation by binding to the E2F family of transcription factors, inhibiting its ability to activate transcription of genes necessary for cell cycle progression. Mutations in proteins involved with the Rb/E2F pathway can result in hyper-proliferative cells that overtime can acquire and accumulate additional mutations, which could lead to tumorigenesis. To prevent hyper-proliferation, aberrant cells can be eliminated through apoptosis. E2F can induce apoptosis through two pathways: through transactivation of the …
Genotyping Of Tgif Polymorphisms Associated With Schizophrenia And Psychosis, George Vera Jr.
Genotyping Of Tgif Polymorphisms Associated With Schizophrenia And Psychosis, George Vera Jr.
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Polymorphisms in Transforming Growth β-Induced Factor (TGIF) have been found to contribute to the risk of development of psychosis and related disorders. Identifying the genes responsible for causing schizophrenia and psychosis will allow for treatment at an earlier stage of development, saving the patient problems, time, and money. The purpose of this experiment is to determine the haplotype of DNA samples obtained from earlier experiments. The DNA samples were collected from people with schizophrenia in Costa Rica, Southern Texas, and Northern Mexico. The samples were tested using 5 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Haplotypes …