Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

7-1-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Chemistry

First Advisor

Robert K. Dearth

Second Advisor

Debasish Bandyopadhyay

Third Advisor

Frank Dirrigl

Abstract

Cancer is a disease where abnormal cells replicate uncontrollably in that same region and/or other parts of the body. One in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer, thus making it the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. Chemotherapy, is the utilization of medicinal compounds (drugs) to treat cancer. While most are nonspecific and target both cancer and healthy cells, more emphasis is on developing drugs with specificity (only target tumor cells) and low toxicity. Interestingly, Beta Lactams (β-lactams) have emerged as a class of compounds that are effective in the treatment of various cancers. The benefits of β-lactam compounds are they relatively non-toxic, high killing rates are lipophilic, relatively small and can be designed to selectively target cancer cells, leaving normal cells alone. Six newly synthesized beta lactams, previously designed to target pancreatic cancer were evaluated on their potential to kill human breast cancer cells in vitro. MCF-7 cells were treated for 48 hours at various ranges and cell viability was measured using an MTT (3-(4,5- Dimethylithazol-2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide) assay. Of the six drugs tested, all had LogP values and molecular weights within acceptable ranges for manageable anticancer drugs. None of the 6 compounds tested showed a more than 20% reduction in MCF-7 cell viability. However, three of the compounds, BD-4, 5 and 10, significantly killed breast cancer cells. My results showed 3 of the compounds, showed BD-5 was determined to be the best candidate compound having significantly decreased cell viability with all doses tested and a molecular weight and Log P value that are supportive of cell membrane diffusion. However, no drug was effective in 48 hours to kill at least half of the cells even at the highest dose concentration of 100µM.

Comments

Copyright 2024 Ailis Abalos. https://proquest.com/docview/3116043908

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