Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Synthesis Of Resveratrol Ester Derivatives Using Selective Enzymatic Hydrolysis., Marian Osei-Mensah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Resveratrol, a naturally derived stilbene, is an interesting compound mostly talked about recently because for its anti-cancer properties. Unfortunately it has some shortcomings due to its low bioavailability and low solubility in water. For this reason, my research is to overcome resveratrol's drawbacks by improving its bioavailability and hydrophilicity. My research is focused on syntheses of novel derivatives of resveratrol such as 3, 5-di-O-isobutyroyl resveratrol and 3, 5-di-O-hexanoyl resveratrol using lipase catalyzed hydrolysis. Therefore, the tri-acylated resveratrols 3, 5, 4'-tri-O-isobutyroyl resveratrol and 3, 5,4'-tri-O-hexanoyl resveratrol were first synthesized.

3,5,4'-tri-O-isobutyroyl resveratrol and 3,5,4'-tri-O-hexanoyl resveratrol were then hydrolyzed using lipase (C. …

Investigating Combinatorial Approaches In Virtual Screening On Human Inducible 6-Phosphofructo-2-Kinase/Fructose-2,6-Bisphosphatase (Pfkfb3): A Case Study For Small Molecule Kinases, Robert B. Crochet, Michael C. Cavalier, Minsuh Seo, Jeong Do Kim, Young Sun Yim, Seung Jong Park, Yong Hwan Lee

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Efforts toward improving the predictiveness in tier-based approaches to virtual screening (VS) have mainly focused on protein kinases. Despite their significance as drug targets, small molecule kinases have been rarely tested with these approaches. In this paper, we investigate the efficacy of a pharmacophore screening-combined structure-based docking approach on the human inducible 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase, an emerging target for cancer chemotherapy. Six out of a total 1364 compounds from NCI's Diversity Set II were selected as true actives via throughput screening. Using a database constructed from these compounds, five programs were tested for structure-based docking (SBD) performance, the MOE of which showed …

Variations On Stigmergic Communication To Improve Artificial Intelligence And Biological Modeling, Megan Marie Olsen

Open Access Dissertations

Stigmergy refers to indirect communication that was originally found in biological systems. It is used for self-organization by ants, bees, and flocks of birds, by allowing individuals to focus on local information. Through local communication among individuals, larger patterns are formed without centralized communication. This self-organization is just one type of system studied within complex systems. Systems of ants, bees, and flocks of birds are considered complex because they exhibit emergent behavior: the outcome is more than the sum of the individual parts. Emergent behavior can be found in many other systems as well. One example is the Internet, which …

The Electrochemical Detection Of Interleukin-8, Cancer Biomarker, Based On A Gold Nanoparticle Platform And Its Political Implications, Jaimee Doucette

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Herein we report on an ultrasensitive immunosensor based on glutathione protected gold nanoparticle (GSH-AuNP) for the electrochemical detection of interleukin 8 (IL-8), cancer biomarker in calf serum and proof of concept IL-8 detection in HNSCC cells. GSH-AuNP were bioconjugated to the primary antibodies (Ab1) and used to capture human IL-8 in a sandwich electrochemical immunoassay coupled to horseradish peroxidase enzyme labels. Using the optimized concentrations of the primary (Ab1) and secondary antibodies (Ab2), two sensor approaches were used to measure ultra low (≤ 500 fg mL-1) and elevated levels of IL-8. Biotinylated Ab2 bound to streptavidin HRP with 14-16 labels …

Drug Design, Biological Activity, And Metabolic Consequences Of Cytotoxic Platinum Compounds: Utilizing Fluorescent Tagging To Understand Drug Action And Metabolism, Brad Benedetti

Theses and Dissertations

Platinum drugs are among the most commonly used chemotherapeutics for the treatment of testicular, head and neck, ovarian, small cell lung, and colorectal carcinomas. Although the current set of platinum chemotherapeutics has proven somewhat successful, the overall success of platinum based drugs is limited due to acquired drug resistance and a limited range of tumor types that are treatable with the current regime. The development of novel cytotoxic platinum based compounds, both trans- and polynuclear, provides for the promising treatment of clinical platinum drug resistant tumors. While the cytotoxic activity of platinum drugs provides for a hopeful outlook, the ultimate …

Synthesis And Analytical Evaluation Of Folate Conjugates For Use In Cancer Cell Detection, Rakeshkumar V. Desai

All Capstone Projects

Folate receptors have two glycosyl phosphatidylinositol anchored isomers, alpha and beta. Folate receptor alpha binds with high affinity for folic acid and act as a receptor for mediated transport of folate into the cells. Folate is necessary for DNA metabolism and thus it is speculated that rapidly dividing cancer cells have an increased necessity for folic acid. Folate receptor alpha levels eminent in specific malignant diseases (like solid tumors and leukemia) and thus folate receptors serve in the detection of FR+ (Folate receptor positive) and diagnosis of cancers.

In general, liposomes have the capacity intake the most imaging and toxic …

Boronic Acid Functionalized Peptidyl Synthetic Lectins: Combinatorial Library Design, Peptide Sequencing, And Selective Glycoprotein Recognition, Kevin L. Bicker, Jing Sun, John J. Lavigne, Paul R. Thompson

Jing Sun

Aberrant glycosylation of cell membrane and secreted glycoproteins is a hallmark of various disease states, including cancer. The natural lectins currently used in the recognition of these glycoproteins are costly, difficult to produce, and unstable toward rigorous use. Herein we describe the design and synthesis of several boronic acid functionalized peptide-based synthetic lectin (SL) libraries, as well as the optimized methodology for obtaining peptide sequences of these SLs. SL libraries were subsequently used to identify SLs with as high as 5-fold selectivity for various glycoproteins. SLs will inevitably find a role in cancer diagnostics, given that they do not suffer …

A Study Of Complex Systems: From Magnetic To Biological, Douglas Carroll Lovelady

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work is a study of complex many-body systems with non-trivial interactions. Many such systems can be described with models that are much simpler than the real thing but which can still give good insight into the behavior of realistic systems. We take a look at two such systems. The first part looks at a model that elucidates the variety of magnetic phases observed in rare-earth heterostructures at low temperatures: the six-state clock model. We use an ANNNI-like model Hamiltonian that has a three dimensional parameter space and yields two-dimensional multiphase regions in this space. A low-temperature expansion of the …

Are Local Chemical Releases Causing An Increase In Cancer Rates In East Baton Rouge Parish?, India T. Anderson

LSU Master's Theses

Environmental pollution has become a steadily growing problem in today’s society. East Baton Rouge alone has 13 chemical plants in the parish. The goal of this research is to find out if the chemical releases in the parish are having an effect on the cancer rates in East Baton Rouge Parish. I gathered data from all 64 parishes in Louisiana. The four chemicals I chose to study specifically, Benzene, Dioxin, Formaldehyde, and Xylene. Chemical release data was taken from the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) website and software from the years1988 to 2009, which was the last reporting year. The cancers …