MSc Chemistry Thesis Proposal presentation
MSc Thesis Proposal presentation entitled: Design and Synthesis of Novel Lysophosphatidic Acid Receptor-Targeting Small Molecules as Positron Emission Tomography Tracers
Design and Synthesis of Novel Lysophosphatidic Acid Receptor-Targeting Small Molecules as Positron Emission Tomography Tracers In recent years, medicine has advanced to a level where we can often diagnose some forms of cancer early in their development. However, this is not enough. In 2022, cancer is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide. One of the most common ways in which cancer is diagnosed is through using a medical imaging technique called positron emission tomography (PET), which often uses a glucose analogue called 18F-FDG to locate cancerous cells. However, using 18F-FDG is not always reliable and may give false results since it is consumed by all cells within the body. This leaves room for the development of a new PET molecule (PET tracer) that is more specific for cancerous cells, which would result in more accurate results. There is a family of proteins in humans that is known as the 'lysophosphatidic acid receptor', or LPAR, family; this family has six protein subtypes called LPA1 -LPA6 . The LPA1 subtype has a high expression level in several cancers, such as liver cancer and breast cancer. As such, the development of a new PET tracer that is specific for LPA1 would have extensive clinical benefits. My research is focused on the development of a novel PET tracer that targets LPA1 , which I plan to do in three steps. Firstly, I will use organic chemistry to synthesize a library of new molecules that have similar, yet novel, chemical structures to other LPA1 -specific molecules that have been reported in scientific literature. Once they have been synthesized, I will then use biological studies, including the Ca 2+ flux and cAMP assays, to determine important parameters such as their potencies. The molecule with the best results will then be chosen to be radiolabeled with fluorine-18, and this tracer can be evaluated in mouse models.
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