“Hits” are determined when the survival rate of the compound used, is below two standard deviation from the mean survival rate. In this case, our mean was 50% survival as that was the survival rate for DMSO (our negative control). Two standard deviations below 50% came out to be around an 18.5% survival rate. therefore, anything below this number can be considered a “hit”.
I really liked your presentation and thought your research was super interesting! Why was it relevant to choose chemotherapy hits that targeted different specific stages of the cell cycle?
Originally, we planned on combining both of our compounds, Harringtonine and Arcyriaflavin A into one solution to test on the drosophila melanogaster in combination with radiation. However, we didn’t receive both of the compounds at the same time and by the time we received our Harringtonine, it was too late to test both of the compounds together. with that being said, we would like to combine them in the future if given the chance. So, to answer your question, we chose these two compounds because they targeted different stages of the cell cycle to see that if we combined them, that the survival rate would be less than if they were each tested individually because it would targeted I wider range of the cell cycle.
There is a fine line between too gentle and too toxic of treatment on a patient. This has been an issue throughout cancer research history, so we would need to do more testing, but if a patient is treated with a chemotherapy for example that seems to be effective, but it is inducing much pain on the patient, then it is considered too toxic. So to answer your question, it is just a matter of trial and error.
It depends on the type of tumor you are trying to kill. In this lab we used 2500 Rad of radiation on our flies. By using radiation and chemotherapy together, the more likely it is that we will have some sort of mortality within the flies. Radiation is definitely very strong, especially at 2500 Rad, but when combining it with chemotherapy, we are able to see more realistic results as a lot of tumors in medicine are treated with more than one treatment. (in other words, more than just only chemotherapy or only radiation). We call this approach “combinational therapy” so yes, there will be more mortality when we add radiation as opposed to just treating the flies with only chemotherapy.
The only reason that the non-irradiated larvae do not have error bars, is because considering time purposes, we were not able to test more than one trial of the non-irradiated larvae. As a result, we were unable to gauge two standard deviations from our data because there was only one trial of data. In other words, we did not have enough data of the non-irradiated larvae to compare to each other to calculate an accurate error number.
Great presentation! What qualifies something as a “hit” for chemotherapy?
“Hits” are determined when the survival rate of the compound used, is below two standard deviation from the mean survival rate. In this case, our mean was 50% survival as that was the survival rate for DMSO (our negative control). Two standard deviations below 50% came out to be around an 18.5% survival rate. therefore, anything below this number can be considered a “hit”.
I really liked your presentation and thought your research was super interesting! Why was it relevant to choose chemotherapy hits that targeted different specific stages of the cell cycle?
Originally, we planned on combining both of our compounds, Harringtonine and Arcyriaflavin A into one solution to test on the drosophila melanogaster in combination with radiation. However, we didn’t receive both of the compounds at the same time and by the time we received our Harringtonine, it was too late to test both of the compounds together. with that being said, we would like to combine them in the future if given the chance. So, to answer your question, we chose these two compounds because they targeted different stages of the cell cycle to see that if we combined them, that the survival rate would be less than if they were each tested individually because it would targeted I wider range of the cell cycle.
How do you determine the effectiveness of chemotherapy when considering the side effects?
There is a fine line between too gentle and too toxic of treatment on a patient. This has been an issue throughout cancer research history, so we would need to do more testing, but if a patient is treated with a chemotherapy for example that seems to be effective, but it is inducing much pain on the patient, then it is considered too toxic. So to answer your question, it is just a matter of trial and error.
Why was DMSO chosen as your negative control instead of something like water or saline?
I do not know the answer to that unfortunately, but I do know that in previous experiments, water has been used as a control.
does radiation contribute to more side effects than chemotherapy alone?
It depends on the type of tumor you are trying to kill. In this lab we used 2500 Rad of radiation on our flies. By using radiation and chemotherapy together, the more likely it is that we will have some sort of mortality within the flies. Radiation is definitely very strong, especially at 2500 Rad, but when combining it with chemotherapy, we are able to see more realistic results as a lot of tumors in medicine are treated with more than one treatment. (in other words, more than just only chemotherapy or only radiation). We call this approach “combinational therapy” so yes, there will be more mortality when we add radiation as opposed to just treating the flies with only chemotherapy.
Interesting experiment! Why do the vials that contain non-irradiated larvae not have error bars?
The only reason that the non-irradiated larvae do not have error bars, is because considering time purposes, we were not able to test more than one trial of the non-irradiated larvae. As a result, we were unable to gauge two standard deviations from our data because there was only one trial of data. In other words, we did not have enough data of the non-irradiated larvae to compare to each other to calculate an accurate error number.
What was the threshold for your potential chemotherapy to be considered a hit?
Our threshold was anything below 18.5% survival to be considered a hit, as that is two standard deviations below the mean of 50%
This is very interesting, great work Molly!