Date of Award

2021-05-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Engineering

Advisor(s)

Renato Aguilera

Abstract

According to World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, with 9.6 million deaths in 2018 . In the United States, an estimated 434,982 people were living with cancer during 2017 . Leukemia is the most common blood cancer in children from birth to 14 years old . In particular, Hispanic children in the United States experience a higher incidence rate of leukemia . Therefore, the discovery of novel cancer therapies is necessary to help those affected survive the disease. A new compound, LMDF5-7 was investigated and found to have anticancer properties that can help to treat cancer. To determine how this compound kills cancer cells, we evaluated its potential to activate cell death pathways by searching for mitochondria depolarization, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, caspase-3 activation, and cell cycle proliferation. In this work, we evaluated the cytotoxic effects of LMDF5-7 in various cancer cell lines and demonstrated potent cytotoxicity against cancer cells, specifically leukemia cells. LMDF5-7 is a novel compound that targets cancer cells and is less sensitive to non-cancerous cells. This compound induces cell death, causes accumulation of ROS, and leads to the loss of mitochondrial membrane integrity. Additionally, this compound disrupted cell cycle progression that caused DNA fragmentation and induced apoptosis in a T-lymphoblast leukemia cell line.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

38 p.

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Andrea F Ibarra Chacon

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