Catalyst Award: Assessing the Role of Natural Compounds on Mechanisms of Apoptosis in RT4-D2P6T cells

催化剂项目支持历史悠久的黑人学院和大学致力于建立教职员工的研究能力，以加强科学、技术、工程和数学本科教育和研究。预计该奖项将进一步提高教职员工的研究能力，改善学院的研究和教学，并让本科生参与研究经验。约翰逊·C·史密斯大学的这一项目将探索天然化合物通过神经细胞凋亡永久抑制或阻止细胞死亡的能力。该项目将增加未被充分代表的学生在衰老生物学实践和基于探究的研究中的接触和参与，并为他们准备STEM的研究生和预科专业课程。该项目向前推进了寻找影响分子开关的天然化合物的轨迹，这些天然化合物可能永久减缓或阻止神经细胞凋亡的进程。中心假设是，黄酮类化合物可能抑制、阻断或阻止HT22神经细胞的凋亡进程。通过细胞凋亡导致的细胞死亡导致caspase等分子的激活，这些分子已被证明可以诱导细胞凋亡。虽然研究表明，黄酮类化合物能够抑制人正常星形胶质细胞的凋亡，但很少有研究集中在这一方面的生物活性或影响这一作用的分子靶点。该项目是一项体外研究，主要目的是评估黄酮类化合物通过细胞凋亡对神经细胞死亡的影响，这是一个与系统生物学、神经生物学和营养科学领域密切相关的问题。本研究将以神经细胞株HT22为研究对象，研究槲皮素和黄原酮对分子靶标(caspase3、8、9；IROS；iNOS)基因和蛋白表达的影响，以及抗氧化剂对体外细胞凋亡致死率的影响。这项研究的发现将增加关于通过神经细胞凋亡抑制细胞死亡的知识。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Catalyst Projects provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities to work towards establishing research capacity of faculty to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate education and research. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, improve research and teaching at the institution, and involve undergraduate students in research experiences. This project at Johnson C. Smith University will explore the ability of natural compounds to permanently inhibit or prevent the progression of cell death via apoptosis in neuronal cells. The project will increase the exposure and engagement of underrepresented students in hands-on, inquiry-based research in the biology of aging and prepare them for graduate and pre-professional programs in STEM.This project forwards the trajectory to find natural compounds that impact molecular switches that may permanently slow or stop the progression of apoptosis in neuronal cells. The central hypothesis is that flavonoids may inhibit, block or prevent the progression of apoptosis in HT22 neuronal cells. Cell death via apoptosis leads to the activation of molecules such as caspases which have been shown to induce apoptosis. Although studies show that flavonoids are able to inhibit apoptosis in human normal astrocytes, few studies have focused on this aspect of flavonoid bioactivity or the molecular targets impacted in this role. This project is an in-vitro study with the primary goal of assessing the effects of flavonoids on neuronal cell death via apoptosis, an issue that is critically associated to the fields of systems biology, neurobiology, and nutrition science. The neuronal cell line HT22, will be used in this study for the purpose of assessing the impact of quercetin and macluraxanthone on gene and protein expression of molecular targets (caspases 3, 8, 9; iROS; iNOS) and to measure the impact of antioxidant compounds on the rate of cell death via apoptosis in vitro. The findings from this study will increase knowledge of inhibition of cell death via apoptosis in neuronal cells.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.