Browsing by Author "Cavazos, Ana"

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    DCA and DMAPT as Radiosensitizing Drugs in the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Cavazos, Ana; Mendonca, Marc
    Pancreatic cancer is currently one of the deadliest forms of cancer. This is due to high local recurrence and invasiveness. Recurrence is thought to be due in part to the resistance of pancreatic cancer cells. Treatment for pancreatic cancer includes chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. Currently, about 94% of all patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die within 5 years of diagnosis. Thus, the focus of this research is to develop a better therapeutic approach to therapy in order to improve the killing of cancer cells and prevent recurrence. We investigated two drugs, Dichloroacetate (DCA) and Dimethylaminoparthenolide (DMAPT, a derivative of Parthenolide). Both DCA and DMAPT were studied for their ability to radiosensitize and help increase radiation induced cell killing in drug treated cancer cells. The experiment involved pancreatic cancer cells (MIA PACA2) being exposed to DMAPT, DCA, and dual treatment, with or without radiation. The cells were then tested for survival rates and doubling times. The hypothesis is that DCA and DMAPT will enhance radiation-induced cell killing of MIA PACA2 cells. The results show that DMAPT and DCA are in fact toxic to the pancreatic cancer cell lines. The dual treatment suppressed cell growth, and increased doubling time of MIA PACA2 cells. Dual treatment also decreased the survival rate of the MIA PACA2 cells (depending on radiation dosage). The data shows that dual treatment of DCA and DMAPT radiation are beneficial in slowing down the spread of pancreatic cancer. Future research will study the mechanisms of radiation sensitization and could help to develop a new technique to treat pancreatic cancer.
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    Effects of Tobacco Components on Streptococcus mutans and the Role of S. mutans in Apoptotic Cell Death through Macrophage Interactions
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Cavazos, Ana; Batarseh, Ghada; Windsor, L. Jack; Gregory, Richard L.
    Cigarettes have thousands of components aside from tobacco and nicotine that are harmful to the smoker’s body. Smoking is considered a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and periodontal disease. One of the aims of this study is to determine the effect of different tobacco components on the growth of S. mutans. S. mutans is an oral bacteria found in most humans that is considered to be the causative agent for dental caries. S. mutans can potentially lead to the inflammation of the heart and arteries which can turn to atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a complex inflammatory disease and is the leading cause of death in the United States. Inflammation is the main concern as it has a key role in the development of atherosclerosis. Irritation can be caused by the relationship of bacteria like S. mutans with macrophages and other white blood cells defending against foreign pathogens. The main focus of the research in this specific project is to establish how macrophage interactions with S. mutans are causing apoptosis in the endothelial cells lining the arteries and veins. Apoptosis is programmed, energy-dependent cell death that causes cells to shrink with no loss of the membrane integrity. The long term goal of this study is to determine if smokers are at higher risk of being diagnosed with atherosclerosis in correlation to S. mutans and tobacco components. Apoptosis is studied by the determination of apoptotic mediator levels. Apoptotic mediators allow for the measurement of cell death. This allows for the configuration of the data presented.
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    LITHIUM-AQUEOUS BATTERY
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Cavazos, Ana; Mosier, Luke; Chen, Rongrong; Kim, Youngsik
    Due to the exceptionally high energy density Lithium-water batteries have very high storage efficiency. Being able to store more energy is im-portant to many industries including electronics and electric vehicles. This is the reason that much research is being done to optimize and explore new techniques of development for these batteries. The Li-water battery has been designed in this project to test water and other aqueous solutions as the cathode. The lithium in a non-aqueous elec-trolyte acts as the anode of the battery. The solid electrolyte used in the lith-ium water batteries is a glass/ceramic (LISICON). The solid electrolyte acts as a separator allowing the Lithium ions to pass through it without allowing the liquid cathode come into direct contact the Lithium. This paper describes the creation and testing of a Lithium-water battery which uses water and Copper (II) Nitrate as the cathode electrolyte. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the difference in voltage of distilled water and distilled water with Copper (II) Nitrate additives as cath-ode. When the tests were conducted, it was found that Copper (II) Nitrate does in fact increase the voltage of the Lithium-water batteries significantly when compared to the distilled water. These results were expected because of Copper (II) Nitrate’s strong electrolyte properties.
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    Nicotine Kill Time of Streptococcus Mutans
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2015-04-17) Cavazos, Ana; Gregory, Richard L.
    Cigarettes have thousands of components aside from tobacco and nicotine that are harmful to the smoker’s body. Smoking is considered a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and periodontal disease. Yet smoking also plays a significant role in the buildup of plaque in the mouths of smokers. This is in part due to the formation of biofilm by Streptococcus mutans. S. mutans is an oral bacterium found in most humans that is considered to be the causative agent for dental caries. Particularly, S. mutans UA159 was used in this experiment. Biofilm formation regarding S. mutans and nicotine concentrations has previously been studied. It was found that at high concentrations of nicotine, biofilm formation of S. mutans decreased significantly. One of the aims of this study is to determine the time required to kill S. mutans.