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In order to further compare porcine and human-derived enzymes, a determination of the enzyme effectiveness was done via digestion simulation. The digestion for both the human and porcine-derived enzymes consisted of three steps: oral, gastric, and intestinal. After the digestion, the absorbance for each enzyme class as well as a dilution curve of the formula used was read and recorded. Using the standard dilution curve and the absorbance values for each unknown, the formula and thus enzyme concentration that was lost through the reaction was able to be calculated.
The effectiveness of both the human and porcine enzymes, determined by the percent of formula lost, was 18.2% and 19.7%, respectively, with an error of 0.6% from the spectrophotometer, and an error of about 10% from the scale used for measuring the enzymes. This error was likely due to the small mass required of the enzymes and can be prevented in the future by performing the experiment at a larger scale.
In intracranial aneurysms, multiple factors and biochemical pathways are believed to be involved in the event of a rupture. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activation pathway is of particular interest as a way to understand and target the mechanism of rupture due to its established role in cellular proliferation and inflammation. Furthermore, unfolded protein responses in vascular cells’ endoplasmic reticulum (ER), known as ER stress, have emerged as a potential downstream mechanism by which inflammatory EGFR activation may lead to aneurysm rupture. The purpose of this project was to investigate the role of EGFR inhibition on the aneurysm rupture rate in a preclinical model, investigate the role of ER stress induction on the aneurysm rupture rate, and confirm which cellular phenomenon lies upstream in this mechanistic cascade. Based on analyses of aneurysm rupture rate and gene expression in the Circle of Willis, ER stress and inflammatory unfolded protein responses were found to be downstream of initial EGFR activation, which may be an effective therapeutic target for preventing aneurysm rupture in a clinical setting.