By Caroline Sampson, Emma Jones

Faculty Mentor: Randall Reif

Abstract

Proton Pump inhibitors (PPIs), common in stomach acid medications, have been shown to be toxic to some cancer cells by inhibition of the vascular ATPase proton pump which, under normal conditions, removes protons from the cell. With proton pumps deactivated, accumulation of protons inside the cell generates an acidic environment leading to inhibition of cell growth which can cause cell death. This study investigated the growth rates of Jurkat T Lymphocytes treated with a known chemotherapeutic as the positive control, doxorubicin, and three PPIs: dexlanzoprazole, esomeprazole, and omeprazole at concentrations between 1 and 100 µM. A plate reader was used to measure the fluorescence intensity of living cells stained with calcein-AM from hour 0 to 72. Preliminary data showed that doxorubicin showed statistically significant changes in cell growth by hour 72 compared to the negative control, while all the PPI treatments were not statistically significant at a 95% confidence interval. The growth rates of cells treated with the four drugs at higher concentrations will also be presented.