Biochemistry Commons^™

Interactions Of Amyloid Peptides With Lipid Membranes, Yanxing Yang

Dissertations

The aggregation of amyloid proteins into fibrils is a hallmark of several diseases including Alzheimer’s (AD), Parkinson’s, and Type II diabetes. This aggregation process involves the formation of small size oligomers preceding the formation of insoluble fibrils. Recent studies have shown that these oligomers are more likely to be responsible for cell toxicity than fibrils. A possible mechanism of toxicity involves the interaction of oligomers with the cell membrane compromising its integrity. In particular, oligomers may form pore-like structures in the cell membrane affecting its permeability or they may induce lipid loss via a detergent-like effect. This dissertation aims to …

Angiogenic Supports For Microvascular Engineering, Zain Siddiqui

Dissertations

Ischemic tissue disease is caused by a lack of circulation / blood supply to tissue. This can be treated by introducing a number of angiogenic (pro-blood vessel forming) factors into the tissue. This work presents strategies for ischemic tissue treatment utilizing a novel proangiogenic self-assembling peptide hydrogel platform. To demonstrate the utility of this platform, its use alone as an angiogenic therapeutic (both alone as a self-assembling hydrogel and with two-component systems), and its ability to vascularize implants is explored. Due to these angiogenic scaffolds demonstrating efficacy to regenerate microvasculature, this work evaluates diseases that can be treated by the …

Ferrocenium Salt Aided Substitution Reactions And Synthesis Of Glycosylated Curcumin Derivatives, Deva Saroja Talasila

Dissertations

Organic synthesis has been significantly advanced with the employment of transition metal complexes. The discovery of transition metal catalysts provided the synthetic community with powerful tools for accelerating reactions and making them more selective and efficient. Many chemical reactions do not happen without a catalyst.

Iron-based catalysts have several advantages for the chemical industry because it is a non-toxic and ecologically friendly metal. Our group previously found that ferrocenium cations with a 3+ oxidation state of iron-catalyzed propargylic substitution reactions at low temperatures. The sandwich structure of ferrocenes allows substituents to be introduced on the cyclopentadienyl rings, which allows for …

Structural And Transient Kinetic Analysis On Mechanism-Based Inactivators Of Human Ornithine Aminotransferase, Arseniy Butrin

Dissertations

HCC, Hepatocellular carcinoma, MBI, Mechanism-based inactivator, OAT, Ornithine Aminotransferase

Immune Cell-Protein Interactions In Alzheimer’S Disease, Kapur Dhami

Dissertations

Misfolded protein aggregates are one of the significant contributing factors in many neurogenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and others. My PhD research project was to study various aspects of amyloid-β peptide, a 40-42-residue peptide and the primary component of the senile plaques found in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brains. One objective of my research was to purify and characterize the intermediate Aβ42 species using an array of biophysical techniques like size exclusion chromatography, fluorescence assays, circular dichroism, cellular assays, and protein assays. The other major research thrust of my project was to study the role of microglial …

Mechanism Of Sila- And Germafluorenes For Biological Applications, Shelby Jarrett

Dissertations

2,7-disubstituted silafluorenes and germafluorenes, originally designed for OLED applications, are a class of fluorescent dyes that have gained recent interest as probes for bioimaging and as biosensors to monitor cellular dynamics and interactions. Desirable biological probes absorb in the visible region, have high extinction coefficients, high quantum yield and excellent photostability. Here, their spectral properties are investigated under aqueous conditions for relevant biological applications. These molecules display intense blue fluorescence in the solid state and in solution, have high extinction coefficients, and exhibit appreciable solubility in aqueous solution. To better understand potential applications, the mechanism of fluorescence was investigated. It …

Investigating The Role Of Fun30, A Chromatin Remodeler, In Dna Repair, Mehwish Iqbal

Dissertations

The repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) is crucial for maintaining genome stability. DSB repair needs to take place within the complex organization of the chromatin, and this requires changes in the chromatin structure adjacent to DSB sites. These changes occur through covalent histone modifications that alter histone-DNA contacts as well as by the action of ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers. Many chromatin remodelers, including Fun30, are involved in DSB repair. Fun30 facilitates DNA end resection at DSB site during the homologous recombination repair pathway. Apart from its role in DNA repair, Fun30 promotes gene silencing at heterochromatic loci such as telomeres, …

Abl2 Promotes Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease Via Ppar Gamma Regulation, Gregory Malnassy

Dissertations

Alcohol-associated liver disease (AALD) is an umbrella term for a spectrum of diseases resulting from chronic alcohol (e.g. ethanol) abuse ranging in severity from reversible conditions such as alcohol-induced steatosis to advanced and largely irreversible liver pathologies including alcoholic steatohepatitis (ASH), alcoholic hepatitis (AH), fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). AALD is one of the primary causes of chronic liver disease worldwide and accounts for 44% of liver disease deaths in the United States. Drinking rates, both in the United States and globally, have increased year over year for the past three decades, a trend which has resulted in significantly …