Award Date

1-1-2007

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Chemistry

First Committee Member

Stephen W. Carper

Number of Pages

203

Abstract

This study investigated the cytotoxic activity of four plant derived compounds including perillic acid (PA), Perillyl alcohol (POH), cis jasmone (CJ) and methyl jasmonate (MJ) on a variety of human cancer cell lines: Breast (MDA-MB-435, MDA-MB-231, DC4, DB46, T47D, SKBR3 and ZR75-1), Prostate (PC-3 and DU-145) and Lung (A549, H520 and H2170). It was demonstrated that these compounds induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis by themselves or in combination with other agents. Specifically, MJ decreases membrane fluidity resulting in an activation of tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1) which signals apoptosis via caspase 8 and 2. Combination studies demonstrated that POH, MJ and cisplatin decreased viability, induced cell cycle arrest and activated TNFR1. These results indicate that plant compounds show promise as an alternate treatment option and the combination of these compounds with chemotherapeutic drugs may decrease toxicity and improve efficacy over single agent therapy.

Keywords

Apoptosis; Breast Cancer; Cancer; Cancer Cells; Cells; Human; Induced; Jasmonate; Lung Cancer Mechanism; Methyl; Methyl Jasmonate; Molecular; Prostate Cancer

Controlled Subject

Biochemistry; Oncology

File Format

pdf

File Size

4874.24 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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