Establishment Of Subculture Protocol For The Maintenance Of Bxpc3 Cell Health In Preparation For In Vitro Cytoxicology Screening Of Calcium Phosphosilicate Nanoparticles
Open Access
Author:
Kumpf, Danielle Nicole
Area of Honors:
Biology
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
James Hansell Adair, Thesis Supervisor Richard Cyr, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
pancreatic cancer calcium phosphosilicate nanoparticles drug delivery
Abstract:
Current treatment methods utilized for the treatment of pancreatic cancer have historically been largely unsuccessful, leading to a 5-year survival rate of <4%. A major obstacle contributing to past failures in treating pancreatic cancer is an inability to deliver high dosages of chemotherapeutic drugs to the tumor site. This project seeks to investigate calcium phosphosilicate nanoparticles targeted to the pancreas for specialized drug delivery. A novel cell culture protocol is described to afford healthy pancreatic tumor cells from the primary cell line BxPC3 for in vitro testing. Current studies are investigating the use of variations of the gastrin peptide as a pancreas-targeting agent for tumor specific delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs. Future studies hope calcium phosphosilicate nanoparticles will allow for specialized delivery of chemotherapeutics to tumor sites, thereby treating cancer with greater efficiency and minimizing harmful drug side effects throughout healthy tissue.
