Yashmeet Kaur
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Corey Speers
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Radiation Oncology / Medicine
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 1 – 10am – 10:50am
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Yashmeet Kaur, Anna Michmerhuizen, Charles Nino, Corey Speers
Presenter: 38
Abstract
Patients suffering from breast cancer receive multimodal treatments including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and targeted therapies, but despite its benefits, multimodal therapy is not effective in preventing recurrence of the disease. About 10% of patients still suffer from recurrence later on in their lifetime. In order to decrease these recurrence rates, new targeted treatments are needed that increase radiosensitization in breast cancers therefore making radiation therapy more effective. This study is investigating radiosensitization with drugs that inhibit MDM2, a critical regulator of p53 expression. By targeting MDM2, p53, an important tumor suppressor, is stabilized, causing cells to respond to the damage caused by radiation treatment. Using clonogenic assays, cells are treated with the drugs targeting MDM2 and exposed to increasing levels of radiation to then assess whether the drug sensitizes p53 wild-type cells to radiation treatment. An analysis of the surviving fraction of cells treated by MDM2 inhibitors and radiation revealed that inhibition of MDM2 sensitizes the p53 wild-type cells to radiation. Since the p53 pathway is involved in cell cycle regulation, senescence, apoptosis, and DNA damage repair, radiosensitization with MDM2 inhibition may be due to changes in these cellular pathways due p53 reactivation. Current and ongoing work seeks to understand the mechanism of radiosensitization with MDM2 inhibition and extends the research dedicated to discovering more effective treatments for breast cancer patients.
Biomedical Sciences, Interdisciplinary
