Graduation Year

2022

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Biology

Reader 1

Pete Chandrangsu

Reader 2

Cory Kohn

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

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© 2022 Drishya S. Iyer

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, “antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today.” This study aims to address antibiotic resistance by looking to the past to address an issue of the future, through the use of traditional compounds, or ancientbiotics, such as copper and cannabigerol (CBG). The inhibitory potential of these compounds was investigated, both independently and in combination, against Escherichia coli, the model organism for Gram-negative bacteria, which have proven to be the more threatening class of bacteria. A checkerboard assay was employed to test for synergy, unfortunately, an FIC value could not be obtained as the concentration of CBG used in the assay was not high enough to obtain a MIC value. Instead, upon the observation that CBG alone might be slowing the lag phase of E. coli, assays were run with increasing concentrations of CBG and no copper, and the lengths of the lag phase & the slopes of the exponential phase at different concentrations were compared using one-way ANOVAs. Preliminary results suggest that CBG does delay the lag phase of E. coli, however, the sample size might be too small to show significance (ANOVA, F-value (3, 9) = 2.6, p = 0.100). CBG does not appear to have any effect on the slope of the exponential phase in E. coli (ANOVA, F-value (3, 9) = 0.16, p = 0.921). Overall, CBG seems to be a viable potential solution to the antibiotic resistance crisis, but there is still a lot more research to be done before this can be put into action.

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