In-vitro Study of Hottentotta Schach Crude Venom Anticancer Effects on MCF-7 and Vero Cell Lines

Dezianian, Saeed; Zargan, Jamil; Goudarzi, Hamid Reza; Haji Noormohamadi, Ashkan; Mousavi, Mohsen; Keshavarz Alikhani, Hani; Johari, Behrooz

doi:10.22037/ijpr.2020.1100957

In-vitro Study of Hottentotta Schach Crude Venom Anticancer Effects on MCF-7 and Vero Cell Lines

Document Type: Research article

Authors

¹ Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Science, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran.

² Human Viral Vaccine Department, Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Karaj, Iran.

³ Department of Venomous Animals and Antivenin Production, Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Karaj, Iran.

⁴ Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.

⁵ Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Science, Zanjan, Iran.

10.22037/ijpr.2020.1100957

Abstract

Scorpion venoms contain potentially useful pharmacological agents. Several studies demonstrate that the venoms of some scorpions induce apoptosis and inhibit the growth of cancer cells; therefore, they have been investigated for isolating anticancer components. In this study, antitumor effects of Hottentotta schach crude venom on MCF-7 (breast cancer cell line) as test group and Vero (African green monkey kidney normal cell line) as control group were analyzed. Cell toxicity was analyzed using MTT and neutral red (NR) uptake assays and apoptosis induction was analyzed using comet assay and caspase-3 activity. Oxidative stress following Hottentotta schach crude venom treatment was analyzed using nitrite oxide (NO) determination assay, reduced glutathione (GSH) and catalase enzyme activity assays. Results showed that crude venom (25-200 μg/mL) induced apoptosis and inhibited the growth of MCF-7 and to a lesser extent in Vero cell lines. Nitrite oxide concentration increased while glutathione concentration and catalase enzyme activity were decreased in MCF-7 cells; however, results in Vero cells were reversed completely. It can be concluded that Hottentotta schach crude venom disturbs the oxidation and reduction potential in cancer cells and ultimately induce apoptosis. So this venom can be used as a good source for isolation and designing new anticancer drugs.

Graphical Abstract