Kevin Crowley

Carnosine is a dipeptide compound that is found in many dietary supplements and food products. Carnosine has many functions in the body, such as alleviating oxidative stress on tissues by acting as an antioxidant compound. Carnosine, therefore, has important anti-aging properties. Carnosine is also capable of forming protective sequestration structures around heavy metal ions; this process of chelating metals ions in solutions is very beneficial for maintaining the well-being of cells in the body. Thus, carnosine could be useful in pharmaceutical products for creating anti-aging drugs that would reduce tissue stress and promote a healthy cellular environment. I attempted to co-crystallize carnosine with four polycarboxylated aromatic acids and two Krebs cycle metabolites to generate various supramolecular structures based on the placement of carboxyl groups on the co-crystallants. If a co-crystallization method is created for carnosine, pharmaceutical products can utilize the same method in producing carnosine-based drugs. Furthermore, carnosine chelation of various metal ions was conducted to determine if carnosine would chelate in a variety of solution environments. Co-crystallization of carnosine with the four polycarboxylated aromatic acids and two Krebs cycle metabolites was not fully achieved, possibly due to environmental and stability conditions of solutions. Carnosine demonstrated metal-ion chelation properties with copper ions, whereas iron and zinc and iron ion solutions did not reveal carnosine chelation properties. In conclusion, more experiments with carnosine should be conducted to find optimal co-crystallization conditions for the production of pharmaceutical products.