AN INVESTIGATION OF THE AMELIORATIVE EFFECT OF STEROIDS ON MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
Jing Su is the faculty sponsor of this poster.
Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects 2.5 million individuals worldwide and yet current treatments are often ineffective and accompanied by serious side effects. Steroids such as prednisolone have therapeutic potential and are believed to disrupt the cascade pathway responsible for proper secretion of nitric oxide, leading to the myelin depletion and blood-brain barrier deterioration associated with MS. The first step in this pathway is the binding between albumin and C-peptide. Two 3D-printed centrifuge filtration devices were filled with solutions of albumin and C-peptide buffered at physiologal pH. A competitive-binding assay was performed to measure the impact of prednisolone on the binding of C-peptide to albumin. Prednisolone was added to the first sample, with a concentration in excess of the albumin, while the control sample did not contain prednisolone. After centrifugation, the concentration of C-peptide which passed through the membrane onto the reservoir tip was assessed using an ELISA assay. The concentration of C- peptide that travels through the membrane allows us to measure the effect of prednisolone on the amount of formed complex present. The concentration from both samples were found to be within close range of one another. A double tail anova test with a P value of 0.466 confirmed that prednisolone does not significantly affect the binding between albumin and C-peptide. Future research should evaluate if the albumin and C-peptide complex is being inhibited from binding red blood cells.
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE AMELIORATIVE EFFECT OF STEROIDS ON MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects 2.5 million individuals worldwide and yet current treatments are often ineffective and accompanied by serious side effects. Steroids such as prednisolone have therapeutic potential and are believed to disrupt the cascade pathway responsible for proper secretion of nitric oxide, leading to the myelin depletion and blood-brain barrier deterioration associated with MS. The first step in this pathway is the binding between albumin and C-peptide. Two 3D-printed centrifuge filtration devices were filled with solutions of albumin and C-peptide buffered at physiologal pH. A competitive-binding assay was performed to measure the impact of prednisolone on the binding of C-peptide to albumin. Prednisolone was added to the first sample, with a concentration in excess of the albumin, while the control sample did not contain prednisolone. After centrifugation, the concentration of C-peptide which passed through the membrane onto the reservoir tip was assessed using an ELISA assay. The concentration of C- peptide that travels through the membrane allows us to measure the effect of prednisolone on the amount of formed complex present. The concentration from both samples were found to be within close range of one another. A double tail anova test with a P value of 0.466 confirmed that prednisolone does not significantly affect the binding between albumin and C-peptide. Future research should evaluate if the albumin and C-peptide complex is being inhibited from binding red blood cells.