University of New Hampshire
McNair Scholar, 2024
Major: Bioengineering
Mentor: Dr. Linqing Li
Research Title: Phase Separated Dex-MA hydrogel degradation on controlled cancer drug release
Abstract:
Cancer affects everyone. Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer and yet there still is no cure nor foolproof treatment options that do not cause unnecessary cell damage. There are hundreds of thousands of women diagnosed with the condition each year and the numbers are growing. Presently there is a large issue with the way cancer drugs are delivered. The way they are delivered causes unnecessary cell and tissue damage to the surrounding areas due to their non-targeted delivery, and whole-body treatments cause damage and toxicity to the entire body. This study aims to create an implantable phase-separated hydrogel that will reduce the amount of surrounding tissue damage while still killing cancer cells. This will be done by creating a phase-separated Dex-MA hydrogel seeded with a STAT 3 pathway cancer drug and then placing the hyrdogel within a transwell culture plate with the cancer cells at the bottom. This study will specifically focus on the microstructures within the gel and stiffness of the hydrogel for controlled drug release and the number of cells remaining after the drugs have been released compared to using a non-phase-separated hydrogel. The hypothesis is that there will be a controlled drug release with phase-separated hydrogels leading to a lower number of cancer cells left alive and the non-separated gels will leave more cells alive due to the lack of controlled release. To prove this hypothesis, 4 major steps will be conducted: (1) drug-containing hydrogels will be prepared, (2) a cell proliferation assay will be done using breast cancer cells acquired from a cell distributor with and without the Dex-MA solution containing drugs, and fluorescent images will be taken using the confocal to show the drug release profiles, (3) rheological testing will be done using the rheometer to measure the stiffness of the gels to determine the best stiffness for the study, and (4) characterize the release of the drug over time by measuring the absorption spectra of the drug. If this is proven, then phase-separated gels will work for controlled drug delivery offering more treatments using this method for cancer treatment and will reduce the side effects of the cancer treatments, making them safer for patients.
