Salvianolic Acid B Inhibits Growth of Cervical Cancer Cells in vitro via Induction of Apoptosis through the Extrinsic Pathway

In 2014 alone, over 12,000 women are expected to be diagnosed with cervical cancer. Of these women who are diagnosed, about 3,909 will result in death. Despite developments in prevention methods, cervical cancer remains a major health concern for women. Growing evidence suggests that Salvianolic acid B (Sal B), a major component of the Chinese herb Danshen, may inhibit cancer cell growth and help fight against cervical cancer. This study characterizes the potential of Sal B as a cervical cancer drug through in vitro testing on HeLa cells. We hypothesized that application of Sal B to HeLa cells will result in decreased cell viability and increased apoptosis in a dose dependent manner. HeLa cells were treated with varying concentrations of Sal B: 25µM, 50µM, 100µM, and 200µM. Cell viability was determined through colony formation assay, cell death ELISA, and nuclear morphology. An inhibitor study was also conducted for further apoptosis pathway analysis. Colony formation assay demonstrated a significant decrease in cell viability with increasing concentrations of Sal B with 75% viability at 50µM down to 0% viability at 200µM. Cell death ELISA and the analysis of nuclear morphology via Hoechst staining reported significant levels of apoptosis at concentrations equal to 50µM and greater. Furthermore, experiments using caspase inhibitors indicated that Sal B’s apoptotic effects are caspase-8 dependent. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that Sal B inhibits cancer cell growth by a mechanism that involves apoptosis induction through the extrinsic pathway.

INVESTIGATING THE USE OF MAZE-CBM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Recent legislation and initiatives set forth high academic expectations for all high school graduates in the area of reading (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, 2010; Every Student Succeeds Act, 2015). To determine which students need additional support to meet these reading standards, teachers can conduct universal screening using formative assessments. Maze Curriculum-Based Measurement (Maze-CBM) is a commonly used screening and progress monitoring assessment that the National Center on Intensive Intervention (2013) and the Center on Instruction (Torgesen & Miller, 2009) recommend. Despite the recommendation to use Maze-CBM, little research has been conducted on the reliability and validity of Maze-CBM for measuring reading ability for students at the secondary level (Mitchell & Wexler, 2016). In the papers included in this dissertation, I present an initial investigation into the use of Maze-CBM for secondary students. In the first paper, I investigated prior studies of Maze-CBM for students in Grades 6 through 12. Next, in the second paper, I investigated the alternate-form reliability and validity for screening students in Grades 9 and 10 using signal detection theory methods. In the third paper, I examined the effect of genre on Maze-CBM scores with a sample of students in Grades 9 and 10 using multilevel modeling. When writing these three papers, I discovered several important findings related to Maze-CBM. First, there are few studies that have investigated the technical adequacy of Maze-CBM for screening and progress monitoring students in Grades 6 through 12. Additionally, only two studies (McMaster, Wayman, & Cao, 2006; Pierce, McMaster, & Deno, 2010) examined the technical adequacy of Maze-CBM for high school students. A second finding is that the reliability of Maze-CBM is often below acceptable levels for making screening decisions or progress monitoring decisions (.80 and above and .90 and above, respectively; Salvia, Ysseldyke, & Bolt, 2007) for secondary students. A third finding is that Maze-CBM scores show promise of being a valid screening tool for reading ability of secondary students. Finally, I found that the genre of the text used in the Maze-CBM assessment does impact scores on Maze-CBM for students in Grades 9 and 10.