Discipline: Biological Sciences
Subcategory: Plant Research
Adria Peterkin - Howard University
Co-Author(s): Ponsawan Netcharoensirisuk and Wiranpat Karnsomwan, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
After many years of developmental drug discovery, the most important modern medicine has been withdrawn from organic environments. Pharmacognosy has established it’s “roots” as the study/practice of cultivating medicinal drugs from natural resources such as plants. Not only does this provide a foundation for innovation, but also a cost efficient structure for developing countries. Avicequinone C is a compound extracted from an Indian Mangrove plant (Avicennia Marina), and its structure has been manipulated and reproduced in laboratories. The objective of this research is to synthesize Avicequinone C and it’s analogs, to manipulate treatment of Melanoma cells in order to isolate the complex polymer, melanin in hair follicles. This is done as a strategy to restrict melanin’s, transfiguration to Pheomelanin, a white pigment, in hair follicle’s. In this study, WNK-3 and WNK-4 were synthesized as a precursor to Avicequinone C. These compounds, along with previously synthesized compounds of WNK-1, WNK-5, WNK-6, and WNK-7 were then used to perform a cytotoxicity test on normal skin keratinocytes (HaCaT cell line), and Melanoma skin cancer (A375 cell line). The cytotoxicity of WNK-5 and its analogs are represented by IC50 values. This illustrates values of the substance concentration causing 50% inhibition (IC50) of the living cell. The results show that Avicequinone C (WNK-5) and its analogs have an affect on both skin cancer and normal skin cells. Moreover, WNK-4, the substrate to synthesized Avicequinone C (WNK-5), shows more toxic in cancer cells when compared with normal skin cells. Their IC50 values were computed at 8.094 μΜ and 17.531 μΜ respectively. The conclusions of this research are suggested to have a benefit in areas of cancer therapy, and can be used for basic information to further the study. Although these results have only undergone one trial of verification, the interpreted results reflect an important step forward toward the overall objective.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): GEAR-UP; NSF
Faculty Advisor: Ponsawan Netcharoensirisuk, nes.naka@hotmail.com
Role: The research I conducted was everything stated in the abstract.