Honors Theses
Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Chemistry and Biochemistry
First Advisor
Nathan Hammer
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Telomeres are repeated nucleotide sequences that cap the ends of each chromosome in eukaryotes. Telomeres are among the earliest genomic sequences to be degraded during apoptosis, potentially providing a biomarker of cell death. To study this, we quantified telomeres in serum from Glioblastoma and non-cancer patients. Cell-free DNA was isolated by centrifugation to remove intact cells, and purified using a QIAamp DNA Blood Midi Kit (Qiagen). Cell-free telomeric (cf-tel) and cell-free actin (cf-actin) DNA were analyzed with quantitative PCR. Total cell-free DNA was measured with PicoGreen assays. We hypothesize that patients with Glioblastoma tumors have higher cf-tel DNA levels than those without tumors. Our results indicate that cf-tel DNA was present at nearly double the amount in Glioblastoma patients when compared to non-cancer control patients with a significant difference (p=0.0151), while cf-actin DNA and total cell-free DNA amounts for Glioblastoma patients and non-cancer control patients were nearly identical. We conclude that cell-free telomeric DNA can be detected and measured in serum from normal patients and patients with a history of Glioblastoma, the increased presence of cell-free telomeric DNA is directly correlated with Glioblastoma disease conditions, and cell-free telomeric DNA may be a useful clinical biomarker for treatment response and for measurement of tumor burden.
Recommended Citation
North, John P., "Cell-free telomere DNA as a biomarker for treatment response and tumor burden in Glioblastoma" (2018). Honors Theses. 463.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/463
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