The Separation and Fragmentation of 15-deoxy, Δ12,14-prostamide J2 as an Anti-Tumor Therapeutic Using ESI-MS/MS

Abstract

According to the American Cancer Society, colon cancer is the third most diagnosed cancer in people of all ages and the second leading cause of death due to cancer, in the United States. Most cancer treatments involve chemotherapy, which kills the rapidly growing cancer cells, along with healthy cells including blood-forming cells. A class of prostaglandins and prostamides was found to have the capability to cause endoplasmic-reticulum stress-induced apoptosis in cancer cells with minimal effects on non-cancerous cells. This study focuses on 15-deoxy, Δ12,14-prostamide J2, or 15d-PMJ2, an effective molecule shown to eliminate cancerous colon cells. The 15d-PMJ2 will be delivered through micelles due to its nature of being hydrophobic and simply injecting the drug intravenously would be problematic due to solubility issues. To better characterize the drug for future studies, mass spectrometry is being used to analyze and assign the fragments of the molecule when subjected to collision-induced fragmentation into smaller ions. These fragments can be used as a fingerprint for 15d-PMJ2 which provide high selectivity for detecting 15d-PMJ2 within a complex mixture.