Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Program

Biology, MS

First Advisor

Denise L. Smith

Second Advisor

Desmond H. Murray

Third Advisor

Robert Zdor

Abstract

Glioblastoma is the most devastating of brain cancers with a very high death rate and a low survival rate of less than 15 months after diagnosis. Glioblastoma is a cancer of astrocytes which are the majority of the brain glial cells that support neurons and help create the blood-brain barrier among other functions. The current approach to treating this disease is surgical removal of the main tumor, followed by radiotherapy and limited chemical intervention by the use of temozolomide (TMZ). This disease is characterized by high invasion and recurrence after surgical removal of the main tumor as a result of cancerous astrocytes migrating from the main tumor site to other parts of the brain. Novel dihydropyridines were synthesized and their effects tested on glioblastoma cell line U-87MG to screen for their anti-cancer activities. Cell viability assays were performed to establish the (lethal concentration) LC50 of these compounds. The novel hybrid dihydropyridines reduced the cell viability of U-87MG cells, with the substituted aromatic compounds being more potent than substituted heteroaromatic compounds.

Subject Area

Brain cancer; Astrocytes; Dihydropyridine

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/theses/131/

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