Abstract
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death world wide. A chemotherapy drug called Drug X has shown promising results in the fight agains cancer. A drug called Drug Y has been used for decades however, patients that have previously been treaded with Drug Y may become resistant to the drug. This can lead to problems for patients that experience recurrence of cancer. Studies have shown that Drug X has a positive effect on both cancer and recurrence of cancer. Some cancer cells have a higher concentration of amino peptidases that both drugs use as a measure to invade cells. Drug X may be more potent than Drug Y and may work on cells that are resistant to Drug Y. Cells used in this experiment were D492 cells and D492HER2, obtained by inserting a HER2 gene into D492 cell.
The aim with this study is to determine if cancer cells (D492HER2) express higher amino peptidases as well as obtaining difference in stress levels after receiving Drug X, with a side project of what influence Drug X has on Drug Y resistant cells (D492HER2Y).
A qPCR was used to measure the levels of certain amino peptidases followed by Western blot that unfortunately did not show any of the wanted amino peptidases. Reactive Oxygen Species indicated that cancerous cells that had been exposed to Drug X suffer from higher stress levels. In conclusion both qPCR and Reactive Oxygen Species show that Drug X has a DNA damage effect on the cells.