Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Design And Syntheses Of Novel Quenchers For Fluorescent Hybridization Probes, Mohamed Moustafa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Since most of human diseases are related to genetic mutations, during the past two decades, identification of such mutations has attracted much attention. Detection of these mutations is mainly based hybridization with the complementary reporter probes.

Nucleic acids detection takes place by changing either the reporter’s fluorescence intensity or the colour of its fluorescence. The use of fluorescent probes for nucleic acid detection has attracted much attention due to its efficiency, the ease of synthesis and availability of commercial reporters that facilitates the probe synthesis. Nowadays, most of nucleic acid detection using fluorescent probes relies on quenching of fluorescence by …

Metastatic Disease: Interactions Between Tumor Cells And Host Environment During Cancer Cell Spread, Jennifer M. Maclean

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Tumor and metastasis formation are not cell autonomous phenomena, but rather an evolution of disease within and responding to the host environment. Metastatic spread from a primary tumor occurs as a result of a complex interplay between tumor cells and the host, wherein tumor cells must escape the primary tumor, enter the host vasculature, travel to and arrest in a distant tissue and survive and grow in that new organ. It is known that cells that progress through these stages must both escape and exploit host systems, yet the mechanisms used are not fully understood. Therefore, the goal of this …

Design And Syntheses Of Fluorescent Cytosine Analogues, David W. Dodd

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The avid hybridization of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) to DNA and RNA along with the molecule’s biological stability has led it to be used in both antisense and antigene capacities. PNA acts against translation via a steric blockade mechanism. It is therefore reasonable to assume that increased heteroduplex stability could lead to increased potency. Two ways of doing this were explored. I) N-Terminal attachment of a platinous chloride chelating moiety to PNA complementary to Xenopus noggin was synthesized with the objective of selective, covalent platination of the target transcript in vivo. Phenotypes consistent with knockdown of the selected …