CENTENNIAL HONORS COLLEGE
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2016
PosterPresentation
BioinformaticsofaNovelOvarianCancerImagingPeptideJ18
ChristopherFrascaandMatthewCash
FacultyMentor:MetteSoendergaard
Chemistry
Ovariancancerisoneoftheleadingcausesofcancerdeathswomen.Partofthereasonisthatovarian
cancerdetectionmethodsareunreliableuntilthelaterstagesofthedisease.Themostcommonmethod
of detection tests for elevated levels of cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) in the blood. However, CA-125
levelsconsistentwiththediseasemaynotbepresentuntilthediseaseisterminal.Thesensitivityand
specificityofthistestislowenoughtomeritinvestigationofalternativedetectionmethods.
Apeptide(J18)derivedfromphagedisplayselectionshasbeenshowntohaveahighbindingaffinityto
ovariancancercells,andwasfoundtosuccessfullyimageanddetectovariantumorsinmice.Tobeable
tousethispeptidetodetectovariancancerinhumans,theexactbindingpartnerofthepeptideonthe
cell surface must be determined. For a protein or peptide, structure and chemical properties often
dictatesthefunctionandinteractionwithothermolecules.
In this study, the known amino acid sequence of peptide J18 will be used to determine the potential
bindingpartnerusingbioinformatics.Thiswillallowagainedunderstandingofwhatthepeptidebinds
andhowthisinteractionproceeds.ThisinformationwillbeusedtohelpfurtherthedevelopmentofJ18
asapotentialcancerimagingagent.