The Effects of Chelation Therapy on Catalase Activity and the Implications in Neurodegener

The purpose of this project is to determine if chelation therapy effects catalase activity in a Invivo experiment and to observe vitamin C’s ability to stabilize the catalase reaction during chelation therapy.  Phase II found that chelation therapy slows down catalase activity and vitamin C brings the catalase activity back to normal levels. Once catalase activity is slowed down hydrogen peroxide accumulates and generates free radicals which are known to be a precursor to neurodegeneration. The hypothesis stated: EDTA chelation therapy will inhibit the catalase reaction in C. elegans. It was further hypothesized that vitamin c supplementation will stabilize the catalase reaction during EDTA chelation therapy. To test the hypotheses a series of enzyme and protein assays were utilized. 12 plates of C. elegans were cultures and 3 were left as a control, 3 were exposed to lead, 3 were exposed to lead and EDTA, and the final 3 were exposed to lead/EDTA/vitamin C. Worms were allowed to grow then washed off plates and homogenized using a bead blender, then a protein assay was ran on all samples and protein content factored into catalase activity equation. Finally a catalase enzyme assay was ran on all samples to observe reaction rate in nmol/min/ml. During this experiment it was found that chelation therapy slows catalase activity by 7.2nmol/min/ml, and the addition of vitamin C further slowed the reaction down by an additional 16.44nmol/min/ml.