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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Defying The Darkness: Countering Cancer With Light, Travis Hankins Apr 2021

Defying The Darkness: Countering Cancer With Light, Travis Hankins

Honors Theses

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) accounts for upwards of 15% of reported breast cancer cases. This subtype of breast cancer poses a greater threat to those diagnosed as compared to other types of breast cancer due to the lack of treatment options available. Additionally, TNBC grows and spreads faster, tends to be more aggressive, and has a greater chance of recurrence than its counterparts. Altogether, TNBC cases generally have a worse prognosis over other types of breast cancer. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is currently being researched as a way to treat TNBC. Photodynamic therapy agents are light-activated materials used for localized disease …


Combination Treatment With Cdk4/6 And Cdk8/19 Inhibitors In Er-Positive Breast Cancer, Samantha Tolentino Safa Apr 2021

Combination Treatment With Cdk4/6 And Cdk8/19 Inhibitors In Er-Positive Breast Cancer, Samantha Tolentino Safa

Senior Theses

Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK) 4 and 6 are the main drivers of proliferation in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer cells. CDK4/6 inhibitors, such as the FDA-approved cytostatic drug, Palbociclib, induce G1 arrest and prevent cell cycle progression. Prolonged treatment with CDK4/6 inhibitors can lead to drug resistance in the clinic as well as in the lab. The mechanisms behind this resistance are varied, with preliminary evidence suggesting that it may be influenced by the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), CDK6 hyperactivation, or degradation of the retinoblastoma protein (Rb). In contrast to the cell cycle mediating CDK4/6, CDK8 and 19 are involved in …


The Effects Of Inhibiting Pi3k On Tumor Suppressor Gene P53 And Cell Proliferation, Kelsi Peters Dec 2018

The Effects Of Inhibiting Pi3k On Tumor Suppressor Gene P53 And Cell Proliferation, Kelsi Peters

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

When the cell surface molecule, Human EGF Receptor (HER2), is overexpressed, the cell can become cancerous. MDA-MB-453 is an established breast cancer cell line made cancerous by HER2 overexpression. This mutation that causes HER2 overexpression affects the cell signaling pathway of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), Akt, MDM2, and p53. We predicted that PI3K would be inhibited with the compound, LY294002, sending signals for Akt and MDM2 to be deactivated in MDA-MB-453 cells. Deactivated MDM2 signals for p53 to be activated. P53 is a tumor suppressor protein that exists in low quantities in normal cells, but when damage …


Structure-Based Drug Design Of Novel Therapeutics Targeting Oncostatin M, Kelsey Skluzacek Dec 2018

Structure-Based Drug Design Of Novel Therapeutics Targeting Oncostatin M, Kelsey Skluzacek

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

At 30% of all new diagnoses, the most prevalent malignancy for women is breast cancer, which in the United States will result in an estimated 266,000 new cases this year alone. Of the patients diagnosed with breast cancer, approximately 10-15% will develop distant metastases within three years of the initial detection of a primary tumor. For comparison, the five-year survival rate for localized breast cancer is 99%, whereas, the survival rate for metastatic breast cancer drops drastically to only 27%. The significant difference in survival rates is indicative of a need for a novel treatment strategy for metastatic breast cancer. …


Paclitaxel Enhances Oncolytic Potential Of Herpes Simplex Virus Type-1 In Cancer Cells, Misagh Naderi Apr 2018

Paclitaxel Enhances Oncolytic Potential Of Herpes Simplex Virus Type-1 In Cancer Cells, Misagh Naderi

LSU Master's Theses

Taxanes are spindle poisons that bind to and stabilize microtubules resulting in mitotic arrest. Herpes simplex Typ-1 (HSV-1) virions utilize the microtubular network for intracellular transport during both virus entry and virus egress from infected cells. It has been reported previously that taxanes may synergize with oncolytic herpes simplex viruses in the treatment of experimental prostate and breast tumors in mice. Other reports have indicated that taxanes may inhibit viral replication in infected cells. In this study the previously characterized Oncolytic Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 (OSVP), which was constructed in Kousoulas lab was used in conjugation with paclitaxel (taxol) …


Characterization Of Murine Breast Cancer Cell Lines For Anti-Cancer Vaccine, Haven N. Frazier May 2017

Characterization Of Murine Breast Cancer Cell Lines For Anti-Cancer Vaccine, Haven N. Frazier

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women and the second leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States (1). While treatments involving radiation and chemotherapy currently exist, disease must be detected early in order for the treatments to be somewhat effective, and there is no effective treatment after metastasis occurs (2). Additionally, current therapies do not mitigate tumor immunosuppression. Decreasing the tumor-associated immunosuppressive conditions while activating antitumor immunity could prevent recurrence and metastasis, possibly leading to an effective treatment for cancer (3). Tumor cell vaccines could possibly address this issue and have become a …


Targeting Oncogenic Mirnas With Small Molecules For Breast Cancer Therapy, Paloma Del C. Monroig Dec 2015

Targeting Oncogenic Mirnas With Small Molecules For Breast Cancer Therapy, Paloma Del C. Monroig

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

The crucial role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in cancer pathobiology has driven the introduction of new drug development approaches such as miRNA inhibition. In order to advance miRNA-therapeutics, there is a need to develop screening strategies that can target tumors in a specific way. Small molecule inhibitors represent an attractive approach to pursue this. However, the absence of molecular structures for most of the miRNAs makes it very difficult to predict which inhibitors can bind to them. Herein we designed a strategy to screen for small molecules by assesing whether they could directly bind/ interact with miR-10b/miR-21. As part of our …


Echogenic Liposomes For Nitric Oxide Delivery And Breast Cancer Treatment, Soo Yeon Lee Female Aug 2011

Echogenic Liposomes For Nitric Oxide Delivery And Breast Cancer Treatment, Soo Yeon Lee Female

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Liposomes, also known as nontoxic, biodegradable, and non-immunogenic therapeutic delivery vehicles, have been proposed as a carrier for drugs and antitumor agents in cancer chemotherapy. Echogenic liposomes (ELIP) have the potential to entrap air or bioactive gas to enhance acoustic reflectivity in ultrasound and are used as a contrast agent. The innovative part of this study is based on a novel concept to encapsulate nitric oxide (NO) gas into ELIP, deliver it to breast cancer cells, and control its release via direct ultrasound exposure. Studies on the effect of NO in tumor biology have shown that a high levels of …


The Effect Of All-Trans Retinoic Acid And Fatty Acids On Mcf-7 Breast Cancer Cell Progression, David A. Brown Oct 2009

The Effect Of All-Trans Retinoic Acid And Fatty Acids On Mcf-7 Breast Cancer Cell Progression, David A. Brown

Master's Theses

Vitamin A metabolites and retinoids may slow the progression of breast cancer and elicit anti-neoplastic properties similar to those of omega-3 fatty acids. Studies using animal models show a decrease in the incidence, growth and metastisis of mammary tumors in the presence of specific fatty acids. This effect is also seen with use of retinoids, specifically all-trans retinoic acid (AtRA). Thus, fatty acids may also alter retinoid homeostasis in mammary carcinoma cells (MCF-7s). The potential for inter/co dependency among fatty acids and retinoids is considerable, and here it has been hypothesized that a decrease in cancer progression will occur in …