6th Annual Judith Ramaley Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship
 
Online Book of Abtracts

 

Poster #58

GSK-3 Beta: A possible role in Base Excision Repair

Calvin Jerde

Faculty Mentors:  Larry Karnitz and  Nicole Aulik

UNG2 is a DNA glycolysis involved in the base excision repair (BER).  Its mechanism is excising wrongly incorporated Uracil in DNA.  In healthy cells the BER pathway prevents mutations involving incorrectly incorporated Uracil into DNA though out the cell. It has been shown that this in ovarian cancer cell lines relay on the UNG2 DNA glycolysis when treated with the chemotherapy agent Floxuridine.  Upon immunoprecipitation assay, UNG2 was shown to co-precipitate with GSK-3 Beta. Treatment of siRNA knockdown of GSK-3 Beta ovarian cancer cells (OVCAR-8) resulted in an increased sensitization to Floxuridine, resulting in a dramatic increase in apoptosis at a 70% reduction in drug concentration. This was a stark contrast when compared with the control Gemcitabine, which was seen to have no increased apoptotic sensitivity.