Spiders produce a diverse number of silk proteins that are well-known for their extraordinary mechanical and biological properties. Dragline silk has been the most prominent focus of research because of its exceptional high tensile strength and extensibility. In our research, we have focused on the characterization of small molecular weight proteins found within dragline and tubuliform silks. Within the black widow spider, Lactrodectus hesperus, these proteins have been named Cysteine-Rich Protein (CRP) and determined to be a family of five individual proteins. The small protein identified within the tubuliform silks has been named Egg Case Protein 3 (ECP-3). In this study, recombinant expression of ECP-3 in the pET-19b-SUMO vector was to facilitate purification and development of an immunological reagent. Using western blot analysis, we have demonstrated that ECP-3 is efficiently expressed in bacteria. We also investigated CRP1 protein and its ability to bind MaSp1 components using pull down assays to determine potential interactions. No substantial biochemical evidence was produced to demonstrate protein-protein interactions between the two. Additionally, we show that using RT-PCR analysis from mRNAs collected from the major ampullate gland that transcript levels for CRP-family members from non-silked and a silked spider are different. CRP2 and CRP4 mRNA levels were shown to increase upon silking. Overall, the major findings of this thesis involved characterizing the ECP-3 protein found within tubuliform silks as well as determining the expression patterns for CRP-family members.

Sound does not transmit well across the interface of two media. Therefore, most organisms communicate using one medium. Some anurans vocalize at the interface of air and water, though reception of these vocalizations is generally unknown. The túngara frog ( Engystomops pustulosus ) may be the first anuran to have evidence suggesting simultaneous acoustic communication both above and below the air-water interface. This thesis addresses whether the female túngara frog would be receptive to underwater acoustic signals and if males project their advertisement calls at biologically relevant intensities underwater. Females floated and swam with their eardrums and body walls constantly submerged. Using laser Doppler vibrometry, peak vibrations of female eardrums were found to be centered at about 3.5 kHz in air, but dropped to about 1.4 kHz underwater. The peak velocity of the eardrum was about 0.2 mm/s in air and 0.04 mm/s in water when stimulated with tones at 80 dB relative to 20 µPa. Males projected their advertisement calls with a sound pressure level of 121 dB (at 10 cm, re. 20 µPa) in water and 98 dB (at 10 cm, re. 20 µPa) in air. In relation to air, the dominant frequency of the advertisement call (0.8 kHz) was the most intense spectral band underwater whereas the dominant frequency of the chuck (2.5 kHz in air) was less intense. The advertisement signal for the male túngara frog was broadcasted underwater with more energy than in air at its main frequencies. Female eardrums were sensitive to frequencies within the male advertisement call both in air and in water, if the frequencies were transmitted at amplitudes plausible to be encountered in nature. These results strengthen the available evidence of underwater communication, and indicate the presence of auditory specializations in the acoustic communication of this species.

The present work examines waypoint selection and evaluation mechanisms for data muling water sensor nodes via unmanned air vehicle. We present a mathematical model for predicting signal strength with respect to distance and height using a two-ray propagation model in conjunction with the individual radiation patterns of transmitting and receiving antennas. Signal quality over space is then be used to select best waypoints. Packet reception rate is related to the received signal strength indicator through experimentation and serves as a data efficiency indicator. Both models are then used to gather performance metrics of several simple path planning schemes. Both hover-only and in-flight communication are compared. Packet reception rate limitations were found to dramatically limit the effectiveness of waypoint selection regardless of power efficiency.

Spider silk displays a unique balance of high tensile strength and extensibility, making it one of the toughest materials on the planet. Dragline silk, also known as the lifeline of the spider, represents one of the best studied fiber types and many labs are attempting to produce synthetic dragline silk fibers for commercial applications. In these studies, we develop a minifibroin for expression studies in bacteria. Using recombinant DNA methodology and protein expression studies, we develop a natural minifibroin that contains the highly conserved N- and C-terminal domains, along with several internal block repeats of MaSp1. We also characterize a family of small cysteine-rich proteins (CRPs) and demonstrate that these factors are present within the spinning dope of the major ampullate gland using MS analysis. Biochemical studies and characterization of one of the family members, CRP1, demonstrate that this factor can self-polymerize into higher molecular weight complexes under oxidizing conditions, but can be converted into a monomeric species under reducing conditions. Self-polymerization of CRP1 is also shown to be independent of pH and salt concentration, two important chemical cues that help fibroin aggregation. Overall, our data demonstrate that the polymerization state of CRP1 is dependent upon redox state, suggesting that the redox environment during fiber extrusion may help regulate the oligomerization of CRP molecules during dragline silk production.

Cancer is not only difficult to treat but the patients also suffer from the pain associated with anticancer treatments. Targeted chemotherapeutics can reduce the adverse effects by reducing the dose required for tumor cell kill. Cancers of various origins often have characteristic marker molecules that distinguish them from the normal tissues. Folate receptors are such marker molecules present in ovarian and cervical cancers. The hypothesis for the current study is that amphiphiles constructed out of folic acid, the natural ligand for the folate receptor, can deliver paclitaxel, a chemotherapeutic compound, to folate receptor expressing cancer cells. To test this hypothesis, amphiphilic molecules were synthesized out of folic acid and fatty acids or long chain aliphatic amines. The gamma carboxylic group of folic acid was converted to an N-alkyl substituted amide. The alkyl group had various chain lengths varying from eleven methylene groups to seventeen methylene groups giving rise to a number of amphiphiles. The amphiphiles formed micelles in aqueous solutions. The critical micellization concentrations of the amphiphiles were measured by pyrene fluorescence and were found to be in the range of 10–70μM. HeLa and Caco-2 cells were taken as in vitro tumor models. Folate receptor expression was verified in HeLa and Caco-2 cells by western blot analysis. HeLa showed more than forty fold expression of the receptor when compared to Caco-2 and was chosen as receptor positive cell line while Caco-2 served as a negative control. Uptake of the folate labeled delivery system in the cell lines was tested by a fluorescent probe (aminocoumarin) labeled amphiphile. To test the specificity of the delivery system towards the receptor positive HeLa cells, the receptors were knocked down (70%) by folate receptor specific siRNA. Fluorescent amphiphile uptake in the knockdown cells was comparable to that of the negative control, Caco-2. Finally cytotoxicity studies were performed for paclitaxel formulated with the folate labeled amphiphiles and compared to free drug treatment in HeLa and Caco-2. IC50 values in HeLa for formulations with the folate labeled amphiphiles were ten folds less than those observed for free drug treatment whereas in Caco-2 no significant difference was noted.

Polyamines are small, polycationic molecules required for growth and development and found in all living cells. In this study, the effects of two polyamine analogues, hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA), a differentiation inducer, and 7-[N-(3-aminopropyl)amino] heptan-2-one (APAH), an inhibitor of N8-acetylspermidine deacetylase, were studied using quantitative proteomics and stable-isotopes. Two new technologies, isotope-coded affinity tags (ICAT) and quantification in fragment spectra using isobaric stable isotope reagents (iTRAQ) were employed and compared. Quantitative results of these experiments showed few changes in the type and level of proteins detected in whole-cell extracts. Proteins from three populations of cells were studied, control (untreated), HMBA-treated, and HMBA plus APAH treated cells. Some of the proteins that were differentially expressed in response to these agents include pyruvate kinase (PK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), mini-chromosome maintenance protein 3 (MCM3), and poly-rC binding protein. The proteins PK and LDH have been reported as possible cancer markers. Histone protein levels were significantly reduced on HMBA treatment, and substantially recovered with the addition of APAH. This finding was very convincing in the iTRAQ work, but invisible to the ICAT experiment, because of the lack of cysteine residues required for quantification in the ICAT methodology. Two proteins were elevated in the HMBA-APAH experiment compared to the other two, heterogeneous nuclear ribonuclear protein C1/C2 (HNRP C1/C2) and ubiquitin. Considering their unique functions, the up-regulation of these proteins suggests the involvement of internal ribosome entry and protein degradation in response to APAH. The results of the two technologies, ICAT and iTRAQ, were found to overlap, but were partly complementary.

Drug development is time consuming, expensive with high failure rates. It takes 10-15 years for a drug to go from discovery to approval, while the mean cost of developing a drug is $1.5 billions dollars. Pharmacometric models (PM) play a pivotal role in knowledge driven drug development and these models require validation prior to application. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the posterior predictive check (PPC) and the bootstrap as population model validation tools. PPC was evaluated to determine, if it was able to distinguish between population pharmacokinetic (PPK) models that were developed/estimated from influence data versus models that were not derived/estimated from influence data. Bootstrap was examined to see if there was a correspondence between the root mean squared prediction errors (RMSPE) for serum concentrations when estimated by external prediction methods versus when estimated by the standard bootstrap. In the case of PPC, C last , C first -C last and C mid values from initial data sets were compared to corresponding posterior distributions. In the case of no influence data for C last , C first -C last and C mid on average 76%, 30% and 52% of the values from the posterior distributions were below the initial C last , C first -C last and C mid on average 93%, 13% and 67% of the values from the posterior distributions were below the initial C last , C first -C last and C mid respectively. PPC was able to classify models from influence versus no influence data. In the case of bootstrap when the original model was used to predict into the external data the WRMSPE for drug 1, drug 2, drug 3, drug 4 and simulated data set was 10.40 mg/L, 20.36 mg/L, 0.72 mg/L, 15.27 mg/L and 14.24 mg/L respectively. From the bootstrap the improved WRMSPE for drug 1 drug 2, drug 3, drug 4 and simulated data set was 9.35 mg/L, 19.85 mg/L, 0.50 mg/L, 14.44 mg/L and 13.98mg/L respectively. The bootstrap provided estimates of WRMSPE that corresponded to the external validation methods. From the results obtained, it was concluded that both the PPC and the Bootstrap were demonstrated to have value as validation tools.

Targeted drug delivery is desired in cancer therapy since most of the side effects common to chemotherapy are related to the toxicity of the drug. Integrin over-expression has been shown in various cancer cells and can be exploited for targeted drug delivery. The goal of this study is to design amphiphilic conjugates with targeting motifs as a targeted drug delivery carrier. Toward this effort, novel amphiphilic conjugates of the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) peptide or GRGDS was linked to aliphatic acids of varying chain length. The hypothesis is that these novel amphiphilic conjugates, at concentrations above the critical micelle concentration (CMC), can form micelles in aqueous environment, encapsulate poorly-water soluble drugs, and target the α v β 3 integrin. The amphiphilic conjugate is also hypothesized to serve as targeting moiety in mixed micelle drug delivery system using Pluronic block copolymer. Synthesis of RGD amphiphilic conjugates was achieved by converting carboxylic acids into more reactive N-hydroxysuccinimidyl derivative and converting the carboxylic functional group of peptide into methyl ester. Then the activated NHS aliphatic ester was conjugated with methyl-protected peptide in the presence of organic base and methyl ester was removed in NaOH and subsequently neutralized. Intermediates and final products were characterized by MS, FTIR, and NMR. Micelle formation occurred in concentration of 0.015 to 0.12 mM for C 14 -RGD, C 16 -RGD, C 18 -RGD, and C 18 -GRGDS. Amphiphilic conjugate mixed with Pluronic L121 and Pluronic P104 (5% C 18 -RGD/L121 and 10% C 18 -GRGDS/P104) formed micelles at lower CMC of 0.0006 and 0.01 mM, respectively. Solubility of Taxol in water was improved by 87% when encapsulated in C 18 -RGD micelle above CMC. The solubility was increased 7 fold and 18 fold in mixed micelles of 5% C 18 -RGD/P104 and 5% C 18 -RGD/L121 above CMC. Three different drugs (DOX, Taxol, and etoposide) were used to evaluate the efficacy of the targeting C 18 -GRGDS micelle carrier alone or C 18 -RGD mixed with Pluronic block copolymers micelle. All 3 drugs significantly enhanced cytotoxicity toward cancer cells when loaded in micelle carrier above CMC. With same DOX concentration, C 18 -GRGDS micelle carrier significantly decreased percent of viable cells (12.9 ± 1.2%) above CMC when compared to concentrations below CMC (24.1 ± 1.0%). Mixed micelle of targeting amphiphile and Pluronic loaded with Taxol above CMC significantly decreased the percent of viable cells (38.3 ± 7.9%) when compared to non-targeting Pluronic block copolymer micelle (56.0 ± 2.8%). (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Based on the biochemical composition and structure of the buccal mucosa, drugs can permeate by the lipoidal and/or aqueous pathways. In this regard, the buccal mucosa is similar to skin. As the unionized drug form is the major permeant across skin, flux depends predominantly on the thermodynamic activity of this species. In contrast, ionized drug has been demonstrated to contribute significantly to the permeability across the buccal mucosa due to the presence of large amounts of polar lipids. The contributions of the individual activities of these species is however, not known. Therefore, the first objective of this study was to delineate the thermodynamic activities of ionized and unionized species and to determine their role in governing the total flux across buccal membrane. The flux of model acidic (nimesulide) and basic (bupivacaine) drugs across buccal mucosa either increased (nimesulide) or decreased (bupivacaine) with pH under saturated conditions depending on an increase (nimesulide) or decrease (bupivacaine) in the degree of saturation of ionized species (DS ionized ). At sub-saturated drug concentrations, a decrease in nimesulide flux and an increase in bupivacaine flux were observed with pH due to corresponding changes in DS unionized . For nimesulide and bupivacaine, the contributions of the ionized and unionized species to total flux are equal when 90% of the drug is in the ionized form. In conclusion, the contribution of the ionized form activity to flux was significant. A lack of a specific model for predicting buccal permeability has led to the use of transdermal models such as the Potts-Guy model. However, it is hypothesized that based on the above conclusion, this model might lead to erroneous permeability predictions. In the second part of this dissertation, a specific model was developed and validated by performing permeation studies of 15 small molecules across porcine buccal mucosa. Molecular volume, lipophilicity, number of hydrogen bond donors and number of rotatable bonds were found to be the most significant descriptors governing buccal permeability (logK p ) based on stepwise regression analysis. An excellent fit with an adjusted R 2 of 0.946 and a Q 2 of 0.882 were obtained. A good correlation was observed between the observed and predicted logK p values for an external data set.

Aminomethyl C-glycosides are of pharmaceutical interest as potential therapeutic agents against HIV, viral and bacterial infections, cancer, and metabolic disorders, e.g. diabetes. Their synthesis is an important chemical problem. In this work, Prince-type cyclizations were performed with different Lewis acids to select optimal conditions, for high yield syntheses of a series of 4-chloro-2-phtalimidomethyl-6methyltetrahydropyrans 3,4 ( a–f ) and 4-chloro-2,6-bis(phtalimido-methyl)-tetrahydropyrans 3,4 ( g–i ), and similar bicyclic compounds 9,10 ( a,b ), potential precursors of C-oligosaccharides. An influence of reagent size and nucleophilicity on the reaction outcome was observed and was interpreted in terms of intermediate complex formations in the cationic mechanism. Optimized eliminations of hydrogen halide from 3,4 by 1,8-diaazobicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) in presence of LiCl gave a mixture of 2,6-anhydro-1,3,4,5,7-pentadeoxy-1-phtalimido-D,L-erythrohept-3-enitol and 2,6-anhydro1,3,4,5,7-pentadeoxy-1-phtalimido-D,L-erythrohept-4-enitol 5b, 6b in 79% combined yield. Epoxidation of 5b, 6b with urea-hydrogen peroxide complex and trifluoroacetic anhydride followed by treatment with aqueous trifluoroacetic acid gave a mixture of two dihydroxy-2-methyl-6-phtalimidomethyl tetrahydropyrans 15 and 16 with an overall yield of 74%. Cis-dihydroxylation of 5b, 6b with OsO 4 /NMO afforded two other dihydroxy-2-methylphthalimido tetrahydropyrans, 17 and 18 . The regioisomeric protected aminomethyl C-glycosides were separated, and were characterized to produce four racemates of aminomethyl C-glycopyranosides in high yields. These primary amines were amidated with chiral quinic acid lactone in the minimal amount of dimethylacetamide to produce four separable diastereomeric mixtures of C-pseudodisaccharides, for a total of eight diastereomers. Diastereomer 37a (or b ) was purified by crystallization and its conformation and structure was established by NMR methods. Diastereomers of compound 35 were derivatized and separated as O-acetyl derivatives and their structure was established by NMR. It was also found that allyl transfer occurred between acetal and homoallylic alcohol during the cyclization step. A new method for the synthesis of homoallylic alcohols from acetals was developed on the basis of this observation. Homoallylic alcohols, 1-phthalimido-4-penten-2-ol 1 β, 1-phenyl-4-pentene-2-ol 7 and 1-benzyloxy-4-penten-2-ol 8 were synthesized by this new method with yields of 71%, 61% and 40% respectively. This method allows the synthesis of homoallylic alcohols from unstable aldehydes. It could be optimized further, on the basis of a proposed reaction mechanism.