Leiden University Student Repository

Knotter, A. (4515)

Modeling Drug Transport across the Membrane of a Tumor Cell: Improving drug development for cancer treatment

Bachelor thesis | Wiskunde (BSc)

This research was performed to determine which type of model gives a better prediction of the drugs transport into and inside a tumor cell. Two types of models have been developed with compartment modeling using the partition coefficient and concentration gradient of a compound. We compared the simulations of these models with varying the drug’s partition coefficient. The model with intermediate steps to cross the membrane takes more time than the model without these steps to reach the partition in equilibrium of the drug in the several compartments. This suggests that the model including these steps give a better prediction of real life drug transport. From a certain value for the partition coefficient, the drug does not enter the cell faster if we increase this value. These results suggest that the model with the intermediate steps is most effective for modeling data for different compounds to test whether they would be suitable drugs to treat cancer.

Tumor Cell

Membrane

Drug Transport

Partition Coefficient

Compartment Modeling

Author

Knotter, A.

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Supervisors

Rottschäfer, V.

ECTS Credits

18

Language

en