APH106 Mathematics in pharmaceutical sciences

Java Python Coursework 1 (APH106) Resit

Mathematics in pharmaceutical sciences

1. Kolbe reaction is for the synthesis of salicylic acid which can alleviate fever and pain:

Here, 4.70565g of phenol was used as the raw material for the synthesis of salicylic acid. Eventually, 4.83420g of salicylic acid was acquired. Calculate percentage yield of the product. (30 marks)

2. When performing quantitative PCR (qPCR), absolute quantification is usually accomplished by including artificial templates such as plasmids, oligonucleotides, or purified PCR products that have been accurately quantified by independent analysis. Standard curves plotted to known concentrations are then created by performing qPCR on serial dilutions of these templates.

It is known that the Ct values are in negative correlation with the quantity of template DNA. Here, different concentrations of standard DNA were used to do the qPCR test and the data are shown as follows:

Using data provided, please plot a standard curve of log concentration vs mean Ct values. Please label your graph and include the R value and equation of the straight line. M APH106 Mathematics in pharmaceutical sciences eanwhile, two repeated measurements of a test sample were also acquired:

Please calculate the concentration of the test sample using the plotted standard curve. (30 marks)

3. The MTT assay is used to measure cellular metabolic activity as an indicator of cell viability, proliferation and cytotoxicity. This colorimetric assay is based on the reduction of a yellow tetrazolium salt (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide or MTT) to purple formazan crystals by metabolically active cells. The viable cells contain NAD(P)H-dependent oxidoreductase enzymes which reduce the MTT to formazan. The insoluble formazan crystals are dissolved using a solubilization solution and the resulting coloured solution is quantified by measuring absorbance at 500-600 nanometers using a multi-well spectrophotometer. The darker the solution, the greater the number of viable, metabolically active cells.

Here the MTT assay was conducted to measure changes in cell viability of a neuronal cell line after treatment with toxic beta-amyloid proteins. Beta-amyloid proteins play key roles in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. The original data of the experiments are shown as follows:

Based on the raw data (absorbance), please plot the relative cell viability (% of control) with standard deviation. Using statistical analysis software, conduct a paired t-test to determine if there is a significant difference in cell viability after beta-amyloid treatment