By Kiara Clark

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Randall Reif

Abstract

The efficacy of the proton pump inhibitors (PPI) omeprazole, esomeprazole, and dexlansoprazole in the promotion of cell death in Jurkat T-lymphocytes (human acute T-cell leukemia) was assessed through fluorescence spectroscopy. In a 6-well plate, cells were cultured in PPI-treated medium or with the control chemotherapeutic, doxorubicin. At specified time increments over a 48-hour period, samples were removed and stained using calcein-AM to measure cell viability. Preliminary results indicate that cells cultured in 0.10 μM PPI treatment exhibited the expected proliferation by 24 hours. It was found that at 48 hours, 0.10 μM omeprazole-treated cells demonstrated a decrease in cell viability comparable with doxorubicin-treated cells. The results of additional studies investigating several concentrations of omeprazole will also be presented. Further research in determining the efficacy of other PPI drugs at inhibiting the growth of Jurkat T-lymphocytes will be examined in future studies.