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Vitamin D: Controversy Cancer And Beyond, Cristian J. Rosales, Debasish Bandyopadhyay

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Vitamins are an essential part to wellbeing. This was not something always known however, as the Germ theory was the accepted thesis of the 18th century. It was found that certain accessory factors helped mitigate and even cure these diseases such as beriberi, scurvy, and rickets. Accessory factors, later coined vitamins by Casimir Funk, are an essential constituent of the human diet. Vitamin D is technically not a vitamin but functions as a steroid hormone whose most well-known purpose is calcification of the human skeleton. This helps prevent osteomalacia in adults and rickets, a serious problem in children due to …

Synthesis And Evaluation Of 4-Cycloheptylphenols As Selective Estrogen Receptor-Β Agonists (Serbas), K. L. Iresha Sampathi Perera, Alicia M. Hanson, Sergey V. Lindeman, Andrea Imhoff, Xingyun Lu, Daniel S. Sem, William A. Donaldson

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

A short and efficient route to 4-(4-hydroxyphenyl)cycloheptanemethanol was developed, which resulted in the preparation of a mixture of 4 stereoisomers. The stereoisomers were separated by preparative HPLC, and two of the stereoisomers identified by X-ray crystallography. The stereoisomers, as well as a small family of 4-cycloheptylphenol derivatives, were evaluated as estrogen receptor-beta agonists. The lead compound, 4-(4-hydroxyphenyl)cycloheptanemethanol was selective for activating ER relative to seven other nuclear hormone receptors, with 300-fold selectivity for the β over α isoform and with EC₅₀ of 30–50 nM in cell-based and direct binding assays.

Minimizing The Perceived Financial Burden Due To Cancer, Hassan Azhar, Zoheb Allam, Gino Varghese, Daniel W. Engels, Sajiny John

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper, we present a regression model that predicts perceived financial burden that a cancer patient experiences in the treatment and management of the disease. Cancer patients do not fully understand the burden associated with the cost of cancer, and their lack of understanding can increase the difficulties associated with living with the disease, in particular coping with the cost. The relationship between demographic characteristics and financial burden were examined in order to better understand the characteristics of a cancer patient and their burden, while all subsets regression was used to determine the best predictors of financial burden. Age, …

Application Of Machine Learning In Cancer Research, Mandana Bozorgi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation revisits the problem of five-year survivability predictions for breast cancer using machine learning tools. This work is distinguishable from the past experiments based on the size of the training data, the unbalanced distribution of data in minority and majority classes, and modified data cleaning procedures. These experiments are also based on the principles of TIDY data and reproducible research. In order to fine-tune the predictions, a set of experiments were run using naive Bayes, decision trees, and logistic regression.

Of particular interest were strategies to improve the recall level for the minority class, as the cost of misclassification …

Evaluation Of Drug-Loaded Gold Nanoparticle Cytotoxicity As A Function Of Tumor Tissue Heterogeneity., Hunter Allan Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The inherent heterogeneity of tumor tissue presents a major challenge to nanoparticle-medicated drug delivery. This heterogeneity spans from the molecular to the cellular (cell types) and to the tissue (vasculature, extra-cellular matrix) scales. Here we employ computational modeling to evaluate therapeutic response as a function of vascular-induced tumor tissue heterogeneity. Using data with three-layered gold nanoparticles loaded with cisplatin, nanotherapy is simulated with different levels of tissue heterogeneity, and the treatment response is measured in terms of tumor regression. The results show that tumor vascular density non-trivially influences the nanoparticle uptake and washout, and the associated tissue response. The drug …

Fluorescence Guided Tumor Imaging: Foundations For Translational Applications, Jessica P. Miller

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Optical imaging for medical applications is a growing field, and it has the potential to improve medical outcomes through its increased sensitivity and specificity, lower cost, and small instrumentation footprint as compared to other imaging modalities. The method holds great promise, ranging from direct clinical use as a diagnostic or therapeutic tool, to pre-clinical applications for increased understanding of pathology. Additionally, optical imaging uses non-ionizing radiation which is safe for patients, so it can be used for repeated imaging procedures to monitor therapy, guide treatment, and provide real-time feedback. The versatile features of fluorescence-based optical imaging make it suited for …

Treating Breast Cancer With Light: The Creation Of Two Photodynamic Therapy Agents, Victoria Lackey

Honors Theses

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment for a wide display of diseases, including cancer, that has become gradually widespread. The procedure requires the usage of photosynthesizing agents, which are activated in the presence of light. One quite successful photodynamic therapy agent is an aromatic structure made up of four pyrrole rings called a porphyrin. This research focused on producing the water-soluble porphyrins, H2TPP-3-PEG-OH and H2TPP-PiperMe-OH, through the attachment of the starting porphyrin, H2TPPC, with 3-polyethyleneglycol and 3-piperidinemethanol, respectively. The novel, water-soluble agent was purified and characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), and UV-vis spectroscopy. Purity was …

Chemotherapeutic Applications Of Rhodamine Based Nanogumbos, Nimisha Bhattarai

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The work presented in this dissertation employs nanomaterials derived from a group of uniform materials based on organic salts (GUMBOS) for selective chemotherapeutic applications. GUMBOS, similar to ionic liquids, are organic salts consisting of a bulky cationic and anionic moiety. In contrast to ionic liquids, these materials have melting points ranging from 25–250 °C, making them solid phase at room temperature. Similar to ionic liquids, GUMBOS display tunable properties, such as hydrophobicity and solubility, through counter ion variation. These tunable properties provide a variety of applications for these GUMBOS, including selective chemotherapeutics applications. The …

Parp Pet Imaging Agents, Brandon Carney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The poly (adenosine-diphosphate (ADP) ribose) polymerase (PARP) family of enzymes has been of interest to researchers and clinicians for over fifty years, especially the first member of the family, PARP1. This enzyme has become a target for cancer therapeutics due the reliance of highly proliferating cells on PARP1 for genomic maintenance. In the coming age of individualized medicine, however, highly specific therapeutic agents like PARP inhibitors are in need of similarly highly specific companion diagnostic agents. These kind of agents have been made possible with the quickly progressing field of molecular imaging. Specifically, positron emission tomography (PET) has enabled the …

Inactivation Of Myeloma Cancer Cells By Helium And Argon Plasma Jets: The Effect Comparison And The Key Reactive Species, Zeyu Chen, Qingjie Cui, Chen Chen, Dehui Xu, Dingxin Liu, H. L. Chen, Michael G. Kong

Bioelectrics Publications

In plasma cancer therapy, the inactivation of cancer cells under plasma treatment is closely related to the reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) induced by plasmas. Quantitative study on the plasma-induced RONS that related to cancer cells apoptosis is critical for advancing the research of plasma cancer therapy. In this paper, the effects of several reactive species on the inactivation of LP-1 myeloma cancer cells are comparatively studied with variable working gas composition, surrounding gas composition, and discharge power. The results show that helium plasma jet has a higher cell inactivation efficiency than argon plasma jet under the same discharge …

Treatment And Outcomes Of Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Patients With High Comorbidity, Jorge Rios, Rahul Gosain, Bernardo H. L. Goulart, Bin Huang, Margaret N. Oechsli, Jaclyn K. Mcdowell, Quan Chen, Thomas Tucker, Goetz H. Kloecker

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: The life expectancy of untreated non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is dismal, while treatment for NSCLC improves survival. The presence of comorbidities is thought to play a significant role in the decision to treat or not treat a given patient. We aim to evaluate the association of comorbidities with the survival of patients treated for NSCLC.

Methods: We performed a retrospective study of patients aged ≥66 years with invasive NSCLC between the years 2007 and 2011 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Kentucky Cancer Registry. Comorbidity was measured using the Klabunde Comorbidity Index (KCI), and univariate and multivariate logistic …

Application Of Synthetic Organic And Medicinal Chemistry Toward Medical Advances In Cancer, Antibiotics, And Drug Delivery, Marlon Lutz

Dissertations

Cancer and bacterial infections are a great concern in our society and have affected populations worldwide. The objective of this research was to discover new therapies for treating bacterial infections and cancer, and for promoting drug delivery.

DapE is an essential component in succinylase biosynthetic pathway, which is critical to production of lysine and m-DAP which both are essential in protein synthesis and bacterial peptidoglycan cell wall construction. Synthetic approaches were developed to prepare a new substrate for the N-succinyl-L,L-diaminopimelic acid desuccinylase (DapE) enzyme enabling the discovery of new antibiotics that inhibit DapE.

MMPs are over expressed in cancer, in …

The Mathematics Of Cancer: Fitting The Gompertz Equation To Tumor Growth, Dyjuan Tatro

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Mathematical models are finding increased use in biology, and partuculary in the field of cancer research. In relation to cancer, systems of differential equations have been proven to model tumor growth for many types of cancer while taking into account one or many features of tumor growth. One feature of tumor growth that models must take into account is that tumors do not grow exponentially. One model that embodies this feature is the Gomperts Model of Cell Growth. By fitting this model to long-term breast cancer study data, this project ascertains gompertzian parameters that can be used to predicts tumor …

Evaluation And Adaptation Of Live-Cell Interferometry For Applications In Basic, Translational, And Clinical Research, Kevin A. Leslie

Theses and Dissertations

Cell mass is an important indicator of cell health and status. A diverse set of techniques have been developed to precisely measure the masses of single cells, with varying degrees of technical complexity and throughput. Here, the development of a non-invasive, label-free optical technique, termed Live-Cell Interferometry (LCI), is described. Several applications are presented, including an evaluation of LCI’s utility for assessing drug response heterogeneity in patient-derived melanoma lines and the measurement of CD3+ T cell kinetics during hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The characterization of mast cells during degranulation, the measurement of viral reactivation kinetics in Kaposi’s Sarcoma, and drug …

Chemically And Biologically Responsive Nanoparticle Systems For Biomarker Detection And Combination Cancer Therapy, Neil M. Robertson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The uniqueness and expression of miRNAs as biomarkers in certain cancers has the potential to radically alter the detection, and therefore the treatment, of the disease. Not only are current detection methods time consuming, and not sensitive enough for biomedical applications, but these small RNAs have yet to be fully utilized in treatment. By utilizing different nanomaterials we aimed to create novel nanodevices for the early, sensitive and specific detection of these biomarkers in a minimally invasive way and develop dual drug releasing nanoparticles, which are entirely controllable, to aid in the treatment of resistant cancer phenotypes.

Role Of Non-Muscle Myosin Ii In Hs578t/Hs578ts(I)8 Triple Negative Breast Cancer Progression, Shimara Gunawardana

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Loss of cell-cell adhesion and migration are prerequisites for the formation of metastases. These events are mediated by changes in the actomyosin cytoskeleton. Nonmuscle myosin II (NMII) belongs to the myosin superfamily of motor proteins which binds to actin and controls actin cross-linking and contraction, however its role and regulation in cell-adhesion and migration remains poorly understood. In this study, we report that associations of α5β1integrin receptors and Ncadherins with NMII isoforms NM-IIA and NMII-B correlate with increased cell-cell adhesion and reduced migratory behavior of the parental Hs578T cells of the Hs578T/Hs578Ts(i)8 triple-negative breast cancer progression model. Using blebbistatin, a …

Key Enzymes In Cancer: Mechanism Of Action And Inhibition With Anticancer Agents, Debasish Bandyopadhyay, Gabriel Lopez, Stephanie Cantu, Samantha Balboa, Annabel Garcia, Christina Silva, Diandra Valdes

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Several enzymes play significant role in different stages of cancer including proliferation, invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis. Mechanism of actions of a few key enzymes along with their inhibitors have been discussed with particular attentation to riboneucleotide reductase, thymidylate synthease, topoisomerase II, interleukins, cell survival proteins and aminopeptidase N.

Dually Modified Transmembrane Proteoglycan Tβriii/Betaglycan In Cell Signaling And Cancer, Laura M. Jenkins

Theses and Dissertations

During tumor progression, cancer cells undergo a number of alterations to evade tumor inhibitory mechanisms, proliferate, invade surrounding tissues and metastasize to distant sites. These properties reflect changes in their cell signaling pathways that, in normal cells, control aberrant cell proliferation, motility, and survival. Over the past few decades, hyperactive Wnt/β-catenin signaling has been linked to the formation of multiple cancers, including malignant ovarian cancer, making identification of molecules regulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling crucial to the development of early detection methods and cancer treatment strategies. Proteoglycans, which regulate transmission of cellular signals, are implicated in the pathophysiology of diseases, including cancer, …

Plasma Medicine: A Brief Introduction, Mounir Laroussi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This mini review is to introduce the readers of Plasma to the field of plasma medicine. This is a multidisciplinary field of research at the intersection of physics, engineering, biology and medicine. Plasma medicine is only about two decades old, but the research community active in this emerging field has grown tremendously in the last few years. Today, research is being conducted on a number of applications including wound healing and cancer treatment. Although a lot of knowledge has been created and our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that play important roles in the interaction between low temperature plasma and …