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Title: | Effect of multiple treatment regimes of cytotoxic extracts and drugs on tumour cell spheroids |
Authors: | Ciantar, Martina (2020) |
Keywords: | Cancer cells Paclitaxel Cancer -- Treatment Cell interaction Apoptosis |
Issue Date: | 2020 |
Citation: | Ciantar, M. (2020). Effect of multiple treatment regimes of cytotoxic extracts and drugs on tumour cell spheroids (Bachelor’s dissertation). |
Abstract: | Multicellular tumour spheroids (MTS) are produced by the hanging drop method to mimic the features of solid tumours due to their layered assemblage and organisation. Cell spheroids consist of 3 regions; the outer zone known as the proliferating zone, the quiescent viable cell zone and the necrotic core. When tumour cells are cultured as MTS, they develop a resistance to various chemotherapeutic drugs, known as multicellular resistance (MCR). This phenomenon is also observed in in vivo tumours. For this reason, there has been an increase in interest to reduce MCR by using multiple drug treatment singly or in combination. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a 0h, 12h and 24h multiple treatment regime of Paclitaxel (D) and Laurus nobilis leaf essential oil (EO) either separately or in combination on MCF-7 human breast cancer cell spheroids, and to determine if it is possible to overcome this resistance by disaggregating the spheroids or induce apoptosis. Every 12 hours, the spheroid diameter was measured and microphotographed up to 36hours. Resazurin viability assay was used to calculate percentage transformation of resazurin to resorufin and these values were compared to the values with the percentage reduction in spheroid diameter. Four combinations were tested namely: were EO-EO-EO (COMB 1), DD-D (COMB 2), D-EO-D (COMB 3) and EO-D-EO (COMB 4). When comparing the mean average percentage reduction in diameter of the four combinations, the highest percentage reduction was observed in Combination 2 (13.54%), followed by Combination 1 (12.19%) and Combination 3 (9.78%). Combination 4 actually produced and increase in diameter (1.35%). Values for the conversion of resazurin to resorufin does not correlate well with the values for decrease in diameter for Combination 1-4. The main limitation has been the 36hour interval allowed for ending the experiments. A longer exposure time would have increased the disaggregation of spheroids and the loosed cells surrounding them , which are indicator of cell death by apoptosis. |
Description: | B.SC.(HONS)BIOLOGY |
URI: | https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/95938 |
Appears in Collections: | Dissertations - FacSci - 2020 Dissertations - FacSciBio - 2020 |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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20BSCB004.pdf Restricted Access | 5.72 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open Request a copy |
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