Abstract

Current treatments for prostate cancer (PCa) are marred with high relapse frequency and development of progressively aggressive cancers; developing new treatment options for PCa remains crucial. In this project, a series of synthetic compounds based on natural products will be screened to identify inhibitors for Aurora-A kinase (Aur-A). Aur-A facilitates centrosome separation and bipolar spindle formation during mitosis. Aur-A is overexpressed in metastatic PCa cells, and is a good candidate for targeted therapies. Compound libraries are designed using natural compounds that contain simple structural elements as starting points for developing drug like libraries. High-throughput screening of these libraries will be used to identify potent antimitotic agents that selectively affect cancer cells but not normal cells. A combination of in vitro protein assays – quantifying protein activity – cell-based assays – measuring cell growth and proliferation – and cell-reporter assays – to determine which metabolic pathway the compound affects – were used to identify potential inhibitors. Through these methods, we have identified several compounds, with special consideration to thiazole piperazine compounds, to successfully inhibit proliferation of metastatic PCa cells.

Thesis Completion

2016

Semester

Spring

Thesis Chair/Advisor

Chakrabarti, Ratna

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

College of Medicine

Department

Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences

Degree Program

Biomedical Sciences

Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Release Date

November 2021

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