Honors College Theses

Publication Date

4-20-2020

Major

Biochemistry (B.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Christine Whitlock

Abstract

Cancer remains a prevalent disease today. This disease may manifest itself in many different ways and affect a variety of tissues with everything from the brain to the blood. With this wide diversity of cancer types, treatment can be complicated since there is not a “one size fits all” treatment for the disease. Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are all options that must be weighed with their benefits and side effects. Ultimately though, there are not enough effective treatment options available for every type of cancer. This leaves many with the grim prognosis of never being cured. With this clear need for more anti-cancer medicine, research is warranted into novel treatments and drugs. A novel tris-indolyl iron-chelating drug GS02 was synthesized and tested for its potential anti-cancer properties. The LD50 was determined using MTS assays against human cancer cell lines and apoptosis assays were carried out with the PC3 cell line. Images of the cells were collected using confocal imaging microscopy. Current results show a decrease in cell viability and suggest that GS02 is inducing apoptosis in the PC3 cell line. Furthermore, the compound was shown to be toxic within a specific concentration range which may be of interest for the potential of a new chemotherapy agent. Given these results, GS02 warrants continued investigations into its potential to trigger apoptosis in more human cancer cell lines.

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