DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/HE1S-4X40

Defense Date

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Microbiology & Immunology

First Advisor

Fadi Salloum

Second Advisor

Eun Lee

Third Advisor

Roland Pittman

Abstract

Due to the advancement of modern medicine, the number of people dying from cancer has plateaued, but people are increasingly dying from other significant issues. The biggest contributor to these numbers is patients diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and an increased chance of myocardial infarction. This paper tackles the proposal that the effects of anthracycline-mediated cardiotoxicity resulting in a myocardial infarction can be mitigated by administering a prodrug hydrogen sulfide donor. The experiments to address this issue were conducted in two parts. Part one established a timeline for when the mouse’s heart became compromised due to the doxorubicin treatment to decide when an ischemia-reperfusion injury surgery would occur via echocardiogram and isoproterenol challenge. Part two utilized a TTC assay and imaging software to calculate infarct size based on the area of risk and infarct area after ischemia-reperfusion injury surgery. The results of this experiment are that the heart is able to compensate for issues at rest, but when pharmacologically-induced stress is applied to a mouse, there is a significant decrease in the cardiovascular contractile reserve in the doxorubicin-only treated group, the SG1002 treated mice exhibited attenuation of decline in the cardiovascular contractile reserve. These results were confirmed after ischemia-reperfusion injury surgery, and the TTC assay confirmed that the effects of myocardial infarction were decreased in mice treated with SG1002. The implications of this study are that there is a new way to think about cancer treatment, and there is a need to rethink treatment options to be used.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

5-11-2023

Available for download on Tuesday, May 09, 2028

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