Tripeptide Stabilized Nanoemulsions for Cancer Therapy

Post date: May 25, 2018 4:18:33 AM by Marium Abdou

A carboplatin derivative consisting of two oleic acids attached to a platinum head, used to kill cancer cells, is investigated in this project through chemical simulation software. One of the challenges of this class of anticancerous drugs is its high level of toxicity to the human body, which results in low clinical dosings of the drug and ultimately ineffective therapy. Thus, for drug delivery to the human body, the carboplatin derivative requires an emulsifier to stabilize it and shield its toxic agents. The emulsifiers used in this project are tripeptides because of their biodegradability and it has been shown that they are promising self assembly candidates in a previous study. In the first phase of this project, general features of oleic acid aggregates in water solution are investigated. In the second, tripeptides, specifically KYF (Lysine- Tyrosine - Phenylalanine) and DFF (Aspartic Acid- Diphenylalanine), are added to these aggregates in order to study the tripeptide stabilized nanoemulsions. The simulations gave insight about the interactions present in the nanoemulsions. 

Structure of KYF and oleic acid aggregate

Structure of KYF(green) and oleic acid aggregate(carbons are gray, carboxyl groups are in red, amine groups are in blue)