Hayley Brown

HHMI-NMSU Undergraduate Research Scholar

Major: Chemistry Project Title: Lysine Based Hydroxypyridinone Chelators for Iron (III) for Biomedical Applications Mentor: Dr. Amudhu Gopalan, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Awards: Asprey Family Endowed Fund Scholarship Charles and Philip Emery Scholarship

Project Description

Chelators carrying the 3-hydroxy-2-pyridinone (3,2-HOPO) ligand have been of interest due to their strong Fe(III) binding properties and potential applications in the treatment of patients suffering from iron overload diseases such as b-thalassemia. The goal of my research project is the synthesis and evaluation of the Fe(III) binding properties of a series of the HOPO chelators that are anchored to a lysine spacer.  The key to the synthetic strategy is the use of solid phase synthetic techniques, which allow for the rapid synthesis of the chelators as well as the easy purification of the chelators. Preliminary binding studies show that the synthetic chelators form tris-hydroxypyridinone complexes with Fe(III).  We have also conducted competition studies with ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid to evaluate the strength of metal ion binding. Our studies show that all of the chelators have Fe(III) binding constants that are comparable to that of EDTA. In the future, we plan to vary the lysine spacer to ascertain the effect of the amino acid spacer on metal ion binding.