Date of Award

2014

Degree Name

Chemistry

College

College of Science

Type of Degree

M.S.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Leslie Frost

Second Advisor

Derrick Kolling

Third Advisor

Menashi Cohenford

Abstract

Carnosine is a dipeptide composed of beta-alanine and histidine found exclusively in long-lived animal tissues. The cellular action of carnosine is still under extensive investigation; however, it has been proposed to have a role as an anti-oxidant and oxygen free radical scavenger, a physiological buffer, a heavy metal chelator, and has been implicated as an anti-aging agent.2,4 Our lab has been studying the interaction between carnosine and heme by analyzing both the effect carnosine has on the glycation of the heme containing protein cytochrome c and the interaction of carnosine with free hemin. We have observed that the addition of carnosine to glycated cytochrome c inhibits the formation of advanced glycation end product (AGE) structures. We have also found that the addition of carnosine to a solution of free hemin drastically increases the solubility of hemin and causes a shift of the max in its UV-Vis absorbance profile. We propose that carnosine is a natural intracellular heme chelator and that this interaction may act as a signal for cellular antioxidant processes. We have designed an experiment to identify proteins capable of binding to carnosine and heme-chelated carnosine. Using mass spectral techniques, we were able to identify a protein isolated from kidney tissue lysates using carnosine affinity beads. By identifying a carnosine protein binding partner, we gained a better understanding of the cellular action of carnosine that may eventually lead to the development of novel drugs for the treatment of a variety of diseases in which oxidative injury and cellular stress occurs.

Subject(s)

Carnosine

Cytology - Research

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