Life Sciences Commons^™

The Synthesis And Characterization Of Ionic Liquids Using Nitrogen-Based Cations For Transdermal Delivery, Jo Galloway

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research was to explore the synthesis mechanisms of water-soluble ionic liquids with nitrogen-containing cationic bases for future use in transdermal drug delivery and forensic science applications. Ionic liquids are salts with an organic cation and either an organic or inorganic anion. They have asymmetric structures, which means that the molecules don’t pack together as neatly as other salts do, therefore, they don’t crystallize as easily, and their melting points are lower. Ionic liquids have melting points below 100°C, and many are liquid at room temperature. Mechanistic studies reveal that the potency of ILs in enhancing transdermal …

Synthetic Pathways For Potential Platinum 1,10-Phenanthroline Compounds, Jacob Young

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

There are extremely important uses for platinum when it comes to the treatment of cancers and dementias. One potential therapeutic combines platinum with a structure known as phenanthroline. This platinum phenanthroline structure is normally extremely water-insoluble, rendering it difficult to study and use in biological systems. The Williams’ Biochemistry Laboratory endeavored to find a simpler synthetic pathway for a water-soluble phenanthroline product. While unsuccessful in identifying a product as of yet, many synthetic pathways have been ruled out, and more hypothetical pathways are being formulated for testing.

Among the strategies analyzed are varying solvent, reagents, apparatus, methodology, and temperature in …

Posttranslational Modification And Protein Disorder Regulate Protein-Protein Interactions And Dna Binding Specificity Of P53, Robin Levy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

p53 is an intrinsically disordered transcription factor that suppresses tumor development by arresting the cell cycle and promoting DNA repair. p53 deletions or mutations can lead to cancer due to the inability of cells to respond to stress. The protein levels and post-translational modification state of p53 changes in response to cellular stress like DNA damage. Previous studies have shown that p53 can undergo coupled folding and binding with the E3 ubiquitin ligase, Mdm2, and the histone deacetylase, p300. In normal cells, p53 is kept at a low level by Mdm2, which marks it with ubiquitin, targeting p53 for proteasome …

Expression, Purification, And Monitoring Of Conformational Changes Of Hcb2 Tmh67h8 In Different Membrane-Mimetic Lipid Mixtures Using Circular Dichroism And Nmr Techniques, Elvis K. Tiburu, Jianqin Zhuang, Heidimarie N. A. Fleischer, Patrick K. Arthur, Gordon A. Awandare

Publications and Research

This work was intended to develop self-assembly lipids for incorporating G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) in order to improve the success rate for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) structural elucidation. We hereby report the expression and purification of uniformly 15N-labeled human cannabinoid receptor-2 domain in insect cell media. The domain was refolded by screening several membrane mimetic environments. Different q ratios of isotropic bicelles were screened for solubilizing transmembrane helix 6, 7 and 8 (TMH67H8). As the concentration of dimyristoylphosphocholine (DMPC) was increased such that the q ratio was between 0.16 and 0.42, there was less crowding in the cross peaks …

Comparative Analysis Of Biodegradability Of Biodiesel Obtained By Conventional And Non-Conventional Methods, Innovative Research Publications Irp India, Nagaraja Y. P, Chandrashekhar Biradar

Innovative Research Publications IRP India

Biodiesel is an alternative to conventional diesel fuel made from renewable resources. No engine modifications are required to use biodiesel in place of crude oil-based diesel. The use of biodiesel resulted in lower emissions of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Biodiesel also increased catalytic converter efficiency in reducing particulate emissions. Chemical characterization also revealed lower levels of some toxic and reactive hydrocarbon species when biodiesel fuels were used. In the present work, biodiesel is produced by both conventional and non-conventional methods to determine the biodegradability effect using microorganisms obtained from soil collected from the vicinity of a petrol …

The Reaction Of Platinum Triamine Complex With Different Dna And Protein Complexes, Morgan Gruner

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The platinum compound Cl [Chloro[N,N-diethyldiethylenetriamine] Platinum(II) Chloride] was synthesized and reacted with N-acetylmethionine (N-AcMet) and guanosine 5’-monophosphate (5’-GMP). Previous experiments show that N-AcMet reacts kinetically faster with the central platinum atom and that 5’-GMP bonds slower yet stronger. When Cl was reacted with N-AcMet the N-AcMet displaced the chloride ion as expected. When Cl was reacted with 5’-GMP the 5’-GMP binds to the chloride ion and the reaction is finished. Yet, when 5’-GMP was added in the solution already containing N-AcMet, the N-AcMet was not displaced as predicted. Through ­¹­H NMR Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry we observed that …

Structure, Dynamics, And Evolution Of The Intrinsically Disordered P53 Transactivation Domain, Wade Michael Borcherds

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

in numerous disease states, including cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. All proteins are dynamic in nature, occupying a range of conformational flexibilities. This inherent flexibility is required for their function, with ordered proteins and IDPs representing the least flexible, and most flexible, respectively. As such IDPs possess little to no stable tertiary or secondary structure, they instead form broad ensembles of heterogeneous structures, which fluctuate over multiple time scales. Although IDPs often lack stable secondary structure they can assume a more stable structure in the presence of their binding partners in a coupled folding binding reaction.

The phenomenon of the dynamic …