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National Science Foundation
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Summer Undergraduate Diversity Research Program

Ro-Jon Grogans
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Keith Parker
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Natural Products, Migraines and the 5-HT2a Receptor

Abstract

Our lab is primarily a cell culture lab. Consequently, much of our time is committed to rendering our cells of interest viable for our experiments. We work with three cell lines, each of which has been transfected with a gene that codes for a specific receptor. These cell lines include the S-27 line (derived from Chinese hampster ovaries used to express the human serotonin [5-Hydroxytryptamine] 1a receptor), The GF-6 line (derived from mouse fibroblast cells that express the rat 5-HT2a receptor) and the HIT-T15 line (hampster pancreatic cells used in insulin assays to monitor cells for incresed insulin production for possible applications in diabetic patient care). It has been hypothesized that the occurrence of migraine headaches may be related to serotonin imbalances, and our lab's principal aim is to study the activity of various natural products against the serotonin 1a and 2a receptors in search of possible cures for migraines. To achieve these ends, cells expressing the serotonin receptor of interest are cultured in sterile flasks for 4-7 days at biological temperature and pH (37 degrees centigrade at pH ~7.4) in a humidified incubator containing 5% carbon dioxide. Once a monolayer is achieved cells are then harvested and prepared for binding assays.

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