Toxicity of virus lke particles in Danio rerio.

• In Event: Poster Presentation and Judging for: Biomedical; Cell & Molecular Biology; Chemistry & Biochemistry; Marine Science; Systematics & Evolutionary Biology.
  In Poster Session: Biomedical Sciences Poster Session

Abstract

14 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year, it affects people of all ages, ethnicity, and backgrounds. This illness causes abnormal growth of cells at a rapid uncontrolled rate that can subsequently metastasize to other parts of the body. Though treatment options are available, many cause severe side effects that negate positive progress seen in a patient. In particular, chemotherapy has these affects, as it targets all dividing cells, not just cancerous ones. Virus like particles (VLPs) are composed of self-assembling proteins that form a capsid-like structure and can deliver cargo to specific cell types. The use of VLP delivered chemotherapeutics may offer a solution to this problem by acting as a novel and cell specific drug delivery system. In order to test this hypothesis, zebrafish will be used as a model organism; however, the toxicity of VLPs in zebrafish has not been previously reported. To determine toxicity, VLPs were injected into zebrafish single cell embryos at different concentrations. Viability, heart rate, and morphological changes were noted over a period of five days. To conclude, the fish were fixed in paraformaldehyde and stained with Alcian Blue to determine if cartilage was affected. It was found that lower doses of VLPs have minimal toxic effects on zebrafish. Future work will investigate the ability of VLPs to target specific cancer cells and act as a delivery system for chemotherapeutics.

Authors

• Olivia Gean Brandenburg, University of Texas at Tyler

• Bridget A. Fitzgerald, University of Texas at Tyler

• Brent R Bill, University of Texas at Tyler