Date of Award

2008-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Chemistry

Advisor(s)

Juan C. Noveron

Abstract

There has been a rapidly growing area of research in the design and synthesis of molecules that self-organize in water to form functional nanosystems and due to the high interest in the area metal ligand complexes were tested as drug delivery systems with a Leishmania vaccine. Herein, we present the design, synthesis and functional activity of Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes that self-assemble in water to form spherical nanoscale structures that exhibit an affinity to bind DNA and deliver it into eukaryotic cells with a high percent efficiency in-vitro. In order to assess the effectiveness of these nanoparticles to deliver DNA vaccines in-vivo, we investigated the ability of the Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes to bind and deliver a gene vaccine against Leishmania mexicana challenged with Leishmania major, into mice models. Comparison of the efficacy of these molecules will be discussed in regards to preventing murine leishmaniasis infection.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

77 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Clarissa Sara Gomez

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