Antimicrobial and antitumor properties of anuran peptide temporin-SHf induce apoptosis in A549 lung cancer cells.

Temporin-SHf is a linear, ultra-short, hydrophobic, α-helix, and phe-rich cationic antimicrobial peptide. The antitumor activities and mechanism of temporin-SHf-induced cancer cell death are unknown. The temporin-SHf was synthesized by solid-phase Fmoc chemistry and antimicrobial and antitumor activities were investigated. Temporin-SHf was microbiocidal, non-hemolytic, and cytotoxic to human cancer cells but not to non-tumorigenic cells. It affected the cancer cells' lysosomal integrity and caused cell membrane damage. The temporin-SHf inhibited A549 cancer cell proliferation and migration. It is anti-angiogenic and causes cancer cell death through apoptosis. The molecular mechanism of action of temporin-SHf confirmed that it kills cancer cells by triggering caspase-dependent apoptosis through an intrinsic mitochondrial pathway. Owing to its short length and broad spectrum of antitumor activity, temporin-SHf is a promising candidate for developing a new class of anticancer drugs.

Antitumor activity of Tigerinin-1: Necroptosis mediates toxicity in A549 cells.

BACKGROUND: Tigerinins are antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) derived from the skin secretions of the Indian bullfrog Hoplobatrachus tigerinus. METHODS: Tigerinin-1 (FCTMIPIPRCY-Am) peptide was synthesized by solid-phase Fmoc chemistry and investigated its antitumor activities. RESULTS: Tigerinin-1 was cytotoxic to human cancer cells. It causes necrosis by damaging the cell membrane and loss of lysosome integrity. Tigerinin-1triggers the expression of necroptosis pathway proteins. It generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) and induces oxidative stress-mediated genotoxicity. Tigerinin-1 inhibits cancer cell proliferation, reduces neovascularization, and down-regulates the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2), and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) genes. CONCLUSIONS: Tigerinin-1 exhibited its potent antitumor properties in this study. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: Tigerinin-1 can be beneficial for developing novel therapeutics for cancer.

Epigenetic alterations induced by aflatoxin B1: An in vitro and in vivo approach with emphasis on enhancer of zeste homologue-2/p21 axis.

The potent environmental toxicant aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), is a group I carcinogen reported to induce the expression of many cancer associated proteins. Epigenetic alterations such as DNA methylation and histone modifications play vital role in AFB1-mediated carcinogenesis. These epigenetic modifications may result in the recruitment of specific proteins and transcription factors to the promoter region and regulate gene expression. Here we show that AFB1, at lower concentrations (100 and 1000 nM) induced proliferation in L-132 and HaCaT cells with activation of the Akt pathway, which ultimately steered abnormal proliferation and transmission of survival signals. We demonstrated a significant reduction in the expression of p21 with a remarkable increase in the expression of cyclin D1 that correlated with increased methylation of CpG dinucleotides in p21 proximal promoter, while cyclin D1 promoter remained unmethylated. The chromatin immunoprecipitation results revealed the enrichment of DNMT3a and H3K27me3 repressive marks on the p21 proximal promoter where EZH2 mediated H3K27me3 mark enhanced the binding of DNMT3a at the promoter and further contributed to the transcriptional inactivation. The overall study provided the novel information on the impact of AFB1 on p21 inactivation via EZH2 and promoter methylation which is known to be a vital process in proliferation. Furthermore, AFB1 induced the expression of EZH2 analogue protein E(z), cyclin D1 analogue cyclin D and decreased the expression of p21 analogue Dacapo in Drosophila melanogaster. Interestingly, the aggressiveness in their expression upon re-exposure in successive generations suggested first hand perspectives on multigenerational epigenetic memory.

Oxidative stress-mediated genotoxicity of malathion in human lymphocytes.

Applying the single-cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay, we show that the widely used organophosphorus pesticide malathion is cytotoxic, genotoxic, and induces oxidative stress in human lymphocytes.

Convolvulus pluricaulis (Shankhapushpi) ameliorates human microtubule-associated protein tau (hMAPτ) induced neurotoxicity in Alzheimer's disease Drosophila model.

Convolvulus pluricaulis (Shankhapushpi) has long been used as traditional herbal medicine in India as nerve tonic. We studied the neuroprotective effects of C. pluricaulis extract (aqueous) against human microtubule-associated protein tau (hMAPτ) induced neurotoxicity in Alzheimer's disease (AD) Drosophila model. We analysed the lifespan, locomotor activity, τ protein level, reactive oxygen species (ROS), lipid peroxidation (LPO), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities in 10th, 20th and 30th days old control (wild type), τ control tauopathy Drosophila reared on C. pluricaulis supplemented with regular food or regular standard food. C. pluricaulis significantly offsets hMAPτ induced early death and extends the lifespan and diminishes the level of τ protein in tauopathy Drosophila. C. pluricaulis also enhances the antioxidant enzyme activities and ameliorates the τ-induced oxidative stress and restore the depleted AChE activity in the fly model. This study provides the first evidence that supplementation of C. pluricaulis along with the regular standard food ameliorate the neurotoxic effect of hMAPτ in AD Drosophila model and also reveals that it is a potent neuroprotective agent.

Bisphenol A induced oxidative stress mediated genotoxicity in Drosophila melanogaster.

This study investigates Bisphenol A (BPA) induced oxidative stress that mediates the genotoxicity in in vivo model Drosophila melanogaster. The calculated LC50 for BPA was 12.35 µg/mL. The strains of D. melanogaster were reared in 0.1, 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 µg/mL BPA treated food media from the embryonic stage (egg); oxidative stress and genotoxicity parameters were analyzed. Food intake analysis confirmed that BPA is not an anti feedant for Drosophila larvae and it consumed BPA containing food. Increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) and depletion of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione (GSH) and glutathione-s-transferase (GST) antioxidant activities were observed in BPA treated groups compared to control. Positive single spots/wing frequencies were observed in standard (ST) and high bioactivation (HB) crosses of marker heterozygous (MH; mwh/flr3) and balancer heterozygous (BH; mwh/TM3) genotype flies indicating BPA is mutagenic and not recombinogenic. A significant increase in tail length and % tail DNA in Comet assay after BPA treatment reveals that BPA has a potential to induce the genotoxicity. Present study suggests that BPA exposure induces oxidative stress, which could be one of the possible mechanisms for induction of genotoxicity.

Lead modulated Heme synthesis inducing oxidative stress mediated Genotoxicity in Drosophila melanogaster.

The mechanism of lead (Pb) modulated heme synthesis pathway induced oxidative stress mediated genotoxicity using standard (ST) and high bioactivation (HB) crosses of Drosophila melanogaster was addressed in the present study. Third instar larvae derived from the ST or HB crosses were reared in sub lethal concentrations of lead acetate (PbAc) treated food media and showed that Pb was readily taken up and accumulated in the said crosses. Pb modulated heme synthesis was evident by significant reductions of δ-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (δ-ALA-D) and cytochrome P450 (CYP450) and increased accumulation of δ-aminolevulinic acid (δ-ALA). The results have also demonstrated that Pb induced oxidative stress by overproducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) and depletion of the antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione (GSH) and glutathione-s-transferase (GST). Wing somatic mutation and recombination test (SMART) using ST and HB crosses revealed that Pb is mutagenic and weakly recombinogenic. By employing larval hemocytes, there was an increase in percent of tail DNA in alkaline comet compared to that of neutral comet revealing the DNA single strand breaks were the products of Pb modulated heme synthesis pathway induced oxidative free radicals. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that Pb modulated heme synthesis pathway induces oxidative stress that mediates the genotoxicity in D. melanogaster.