McNair Scholars Research Journal
Abstract
Adenocarcinoma is a common type of non-small cell cancer that represents 80% of all diagnosed lung cancers. Typical treatment methods include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, or some combination of the three. Although radiation therapy and chemotherapy treatments are effective at killing cancer cells, the side effects and symptoms associated with these treatments can cause severe damage to the patient’s body and even encourage some fatal illnesses, such as sepsis. Research has been focused on the development of other methods of treatment that would be less harmful or even non-harmful to patients. Antimicrobial peptides are known for their potential in modern antibiotics to treat bacteria-caused illnesses. The antimicrobial peptide, cysteine deleted tachyplesin (CDT), demonstrates both antibacterial as well as anticancer properties. To improve the development of CDT into a possible treatment for adenocarcinoma of the lung, analogs of the peptide CDT containing the hyaluronan binding sequence are being synthesized and tested on the cell line A549, with the hopes of improving their anticancer characteristics and to understand better the mechanism that allows CDT and its analogs to cause adenocarcinoma cell death.