Toxicity and anti-proliferative effects of peptidyl chloromethyl ketones in Jurkat T cells

This thesis examines the effects of synthetic enzyme inhibitors on a human leukemic T cell line. These inhibitors kill the cells by inducing programmed cell death at low concentrations and necrosis at higher concentrations. At non-toxic concentrations, the inhibitors stop the cells from proliferating and block cell cycle progression by preventing the cells from leaving and entering the cell cycle. All these effects are caused by oxidative stress via the production of reactive oxygen species. By understanding how these inhibitors affect these leukemic T cells may provide insights in developing more specific anticancer drugs.