Preliminary Evaluation of Anti-Cancer Activity of Novel Analogs of Curcumin
Type of Proposal
Oral presentation
Faculty
Faculty of Science
Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Siyaram Pandey
Start Date
24-3-2015 2:00 PM
End Date
24-3-2015 2:50 PM
Importance of the Project
Cancer has impacted many lives directly and indirectly. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation are the primary treatment options. Most often include sever side effects that we are all familiar with such as a weakened immune system and hair loss. Natural products such as curcumin have been reported to show anti-cancer activities while reducing the side effects. However, there exists various obstacles that curcumin must overcome to be considered primary chemotherapeutic agents. With the assistance of our collaborators, synthetic analogs have been produced to mimic the structure of curcumin. Using these analogs I will be testing the efficacy and selectivity against cancer cells.
Existing State of Knowledge
Curcumin it has been proposed that it activates many different ways to kill cancer cells. However, problems arise including low solubility (i.e difficult to dissolve in water) and rapid excretion from the body. Using these analogs we will hopefully help overcome some of these issues.
Research Question
How various novel synthetic analogs of curcumin selectively kill cancer cells.
Methodology
Using 2-dimensional models of lung cancer, generic screening of the various analogs will be performed first to find effecting doses.
To further mimic the environment of the tumor inside a cell these same lung cancer cells will be grown in 3-demensional models and again treated with the analogs.
This project will qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the efficacy of killing these cancer cells at different time points of treatment.
Finally the goal will be using non-cancerous cell models as well as animal models to help show the selectivity in these compounds.
Your Findings
What has been shown in previous work is that these analogs alone and in combination with other molecules decrease the cell metabolism of cancer cells.
What remains is to quantify that these cells are in fact dying and how they are dying. Finally, we will need to prove that these drugs are well tolerated in animal models.
Preliminary Evaluation of Anti-Cancer Activity of Novel Analogs of Curcumin