Publication Date

Summer 2011

Document Type

Project Summary

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Analytical Chemistry

First Advisor

Walter Henne, Jr., Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Patty Fu-Giles, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Joseph B. Addison, Ph.D.

Abstract

Drug delivery is one of the most important concepts for cancer patients because it is oftentimes very difficult or nearly impossible to exclusively target cancerous cells. In this study, the aim was to target receptors on cancerous cells, specifically the Folate Receptor (FR). This specific receptor was targeted because it has been proven to enhance intracellular delivery being that folic acid is an integral species in normal cell function and also that cancerous cells tend to exhibit an abnormally high concentration of Folic Acid on cell surfaces.

The application of dyes is a very common practice used to link folic acid, which yields availability of detection via dyes and immaging. Although dye conjugation has proven very useful, dyes have to be specific and monitored as specific wavelengths in order to maximized detection. In this study, the concept of disulfide linkage was applied in order to link Folate Cysteinyl Dithiopyridil to Cysteinyl Rhodamine as a Mass Spec Probe, which would diversify the techniques capable of detecting FR+ cancer cells. Because the mechanism in the study directly uses disulfide bond it makes linkage possible with various different types of moieties such including DNA, nanoparticles, proteins or any other sulfhydryl containing species. Because FR is overly produced in malignant cells, several types of dyes are being studied as to bind with FR; however, our study will make use of the positively charged Rhodamine in order to have both an optical and MS detection method.

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