Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), indicated by the absence of estrogen, progesterone and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), is the most aggressive form of breast cancer characterized by high rates of metastasis and low survival. Among those diagnosed with TNBC, 34% contain Inhibitor of Growth 4 (ING4) deletion that is associated with poor patient outcomes. We previously showed that ING4 negatively regulates NF-B in breast cancer. Previous studies show parthenolide, a compound found in feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) to inhibit NF-B in cervical and gastric cancer. We hypothesized that parthenolide inhibits cytokine-induced activation of NF-B in ING4 deficient TNBC cells. To test the hypothesis, previously established vectors, v2, ING4 wildtype and v2h1, ING4-deleted were synthesized in MDA-MB 231, a TNBC cell line, using a CRISPR/Cas9 system. Inflammatory cytokines, IL-1 and TNF, were tested in ING4 wildtype or ING4 deleted cells for elicited phosphorylation of NF-B, proliferation, and migration in the presence or absence of parthenolide. The results showed that TNF or IL-1 induced translocation phosphorylation of NF-B regardless of ING4 deletion. ING4 inhibited proinflammatory cytokine induced pp65, consistent with previous studies demonstrating the negative regulation of NF-B in ING4-sufficent cell lines. We found the optimal working dose of parthenolide, 100nM, had no effect on cell proliferation in the presence or absence of IL-1. Parthenolide inhibited IL-1induced phosphorylation of NF-B regardless of ING4 deletion. Parthenolide inhibited TNF-induced phosphorylation of NF-B in ING4-deleted cell lines. Moreover, parthenolide induced migration of TNBC cells regardless of ING4 presence of absence. TNF and parthenolide treated samples in ING4-deleted cell lines were found to inhibit cell migration to basal level. These results demonstrate the difference in inhibitory mechanism of parthenolide in induced phosphorylation of NF-B through proinflammatory cytokines TNF or IL-1This is demonstrated by the exclusivity of parthenolide inhibition of TNF induced phosphorylation of NF-B in ING4-deleted TNBC cell line. In contrast, parthenolide inhibition of IL-1 induced phosphorylation of NF-B occurred regardless of ING4 deletion. These results may inhibit parthenolide as an alternative to those with ING4-deleted TNBC due to its role in inducing cancer phenotype cell migration.

Pollution causes many health problems in the modern world and the desert climates struggle with pollution in unique ways. In the Sonoran Desert, the research was conducted with the purpose of expanding the knowledge of the topic in this area. A literature review was conducted based on air, soil and noise pollution in the region. The Sonoran Desert has high levels of carcinogenic elements along with other pollutants due to the main industries of mining, agriculture and manufacturing. Overall, these findings show people in desert climates deal with high levels of pollutants.

The ever-increasing importance of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases continues to grow as populations across the world are affected by death and aging. The vitamin A (RXR) and vitamin D (VDR) receptor pathways offer promising potential to aid in treatment of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. This thesis discusses the potential application of novel analogs of Bexarotene (RXR agonist), MeTC7 (a new potent VDR antagonist), and vitamin D as possible therapeutics for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Aboveground-belowground relationships between vegetation and its associated soil biotic community play an important role in every terrestrial ecosystem for nutrient cycling and soil health maintenance. Deserts are especially sensitive to change and little is known about Sonoran Desert soil microbiota, while exotic herbaceous species are increasingly invading into the ecosystem with other harmful effects. In many other environments, soil communities have been associated with both plant species and plant functional type. The soil community food web depends on the sustenance brought by vegetation, and different soil community members are adapted to different diets. In this paper, we hypothesized that invasive plants would cause belowground soil communities to have greater abundance and lesser diversity than those under native, more locally established plants. To test this hypothesis, we selected four desert understory plant taxa: one native grass, one native forb, one invasive grass, and one invasive forb. We predicted that the invasive plants would be associated with a greater count of microarthropods per unit mass of soil but lesser microarthropod species diversity. The invasive plants were not statistically associated with a greater count of microarthropods per kilogram of soil nor lesser microarthropod species diversity. There was not a significant difference in abundance in the microarthropod categories between native and invasive plants, so the hypothesis was rejected. However, the invasive Erodium cicutarium was found to harbor high soil mite abundance, which warrants further study, and it is yet to be seen whether soil moisture and proximity to trees played a role in the data. The results of this study should help in generating more informed hypotheses regarding desert aboveground-belowground relationships.