Date of Award

4-19-2017

Document Type

Research Paper

First Advisor

Hector Valenzuela

Abstract

T-cells are a type of white blood cell that in our bodies, scanning for cellular abnormalities and infections, thus making them essential for human immunity. However, due to the effects of aging, our bodies diminish the production of T cells and as a result, elderly individuals do not respond to immune disturbance as robustly as young individuals. In this experiment, I am examining the Jurkat T-cell, a human T lymphocyte cell line, viability at different treatment concentrations of the natural compounds, resveratrol and curcumin, and two cancer treatment drugs, cisplatin and bleomycin. These natural compounds, resveratrol and curcumin, have been shown to favorably induce cell signaling involved with cell longevity. However, these compounds can also kill abnormal cells, i.e., cancer cells. The comparison between natural compounds and anti-cancer drugs is to test whether or not these natural compounds work synergistically with anti-cancer drugs. If natural compound and anti-cancer drugs do work better, it can potentially lower the cost of cancer treatments and eliminate side effects from treatment. The results from the experiment show that at 1μM resveratrol, 1μM curcumin, 1μM cisplatin, and at 1μM bleomycin can all significantly decrease in cell viability when compared to the individual treatment control groups. The trend seen from all these compounds indicate that as concentration increased the average of living cells decreases. We are in the process of combining the different compounds to determine their effects on Jurkat T-cells. We are also in the process of performing RT-PCR to detect which proteins are being expressed, such as the Sirtuin 1-7 family, mTOR, and telomerase. The overall goal of this experiment is to determine the mechanism for T cells senescence and mechanisms of lymphoma regulation.

Comments

WSP Major: Cultural Nutrition

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