You are here

FAU Collections » FAU Research Repository » FAU Theses and Dissertations

Discovery and investigation of survivin-targeting marine natural products from Ellisella paraplexauroides and Eudistoma olivaceum

Download pdf | Full Screen View

Date Issued:
2021
Abstract/Description:
In 2020, the National Institute of Health reported that more than 1.8 million people in the U.S. were diagnosed with cancer and over half a million died from those diseases. There is an urgent need for innovative and effective new treatments which stem from novel cancer drug targets. Survivin, the smallest member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family, is highly expressed during development and in cancer cells but not in differentiated tissues, making it a tumor-selective target for new drug therapies. At only 16.5 kDa, it consists of a single Baculovirus IAP Repeat (BIR) domain and an α-helical coiled coil. Survivin plays a multitude of roles in the growth and survival of cancer cells—which can be attributed to the variable cellular localizations and posttranslational modifications of the protein—including inhibition of apoptosis, mitosis and cell cycle progression, DNA damage repair, drug resistance, metastasis, angiogenesis, and cell senescence, among others. A drug that is able to target surviving transcription or posttranslational modification or disrupt one of these critical pathways may serve as an attractive new cancer therapy. Despite decades of research on surviving and its intracellular functions, researchers have yet to find an FDA approved drug. Using a high throughput approach, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute’s chemical library of marine natural products was screened by the Guzmán lab to identify compounds capable of downregulating survivin expression in A549 non-small cell lung carcinoma and DLD-1 colorectal adenocarcinoma cell lines. From the screening assay, pure compounds were identified which reduce levels of survivin protein in cancer cells. Chapter 2 describes the isolation and structure elucidation of five polyhydroxylated sterol analogs from Ellisella paraplexauroides, four of them novel. Chapter 3 describes the isolation and structure elucidation of two compounds from Eudistoma olivaceum, eudistomin H and I. Chapter 4 describes the secondary biological testing employed to determine if the reduction of survivin expression was driven by reducing de novo production or increasing the degradation of existing protein by evaluating differential gene expression of survivin mRNA using reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction and measuring degradation rates of survivin protein, respectively.
Title: Discovery and investigation of survivin-targeting marine natural products from Ellisella paraplexauroides and Eudistoma olivaceum.
38 views
17 downloads
Name(s): Francis, Kirstie Tandberg , author
Wright, Amy E. , Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2021
Date Issued: 2021
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 238 p.
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: In 2020, the National Institute of Health reported that more than 1.8 million people in the U.S. were diagnosed with cancer and over half a million died from those diseases. There is an urgent need for innovative and effective new treatments which stem from novel cancer drug targets. Survivin, the smallest member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family, is highly expressed during development and in cancer cells but not in differentiated tissues, making it a tumor-selective target for new drug therapies. At only 16.5 kDa, it consists of a single Baculovirus IAP Repeat (BIR) domain and an α-helical coiled coil. Survivin plays a multitude of roles in the growth and survival of cancer cells—which can be attributed to the variable cellular localizations and posttranslational modifications of the protein—including inhibition of apoptosis, mitosis and cell cycle progression, DNA damage repair, drug resistance, metastasis, angiogenesis, and cell senescence, among others. A drug that is able to target surviving transcription or posttranslational modification or disrupt one of these critical pathways may serve as an attractive new cancer therapy. Despite decades of research on surviving and its intracellular functions, researchers have yet to find an FDA approved drug. Using a high throughput approach, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute’s chemical library of marine natural products was screened by the Guzmán lab to identify compounds capable of downregulating survivin expression in A549 non-small cell lung carcinoma and DLD-1 colorectal adenocarcinoma cell lines. From the screening assay, pure compounds were identified which reduce levels of survivin protein in cancer cells. Chapter 2 describes the isolation and structure elucidation of five polyhydroxylated sterol analogs from Ellisella paraplexauroides, four of them novel. Chapter 3 describes the isolation and structure elucidation of two compounds from Eudistoma olivaceum, eudistomin H and I. Chapter 4 describes the secondary biological testing employed to determine if the reduction of survivin expression was driven by reducing de novo production or increasing the degradation of existing protein by evaluating differential gene expression of survivin mRNA using reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction and measuring degradation rates of survivin protein, respectively.
Identifier: FA00013828 (IID)
Degree granted: Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Includes bibliography.
Subject(s): Survivin
Marine natural products
Antineoplastic agents--Development
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00013828
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.