Abstract
Antimicrobial peptides present a broad spectrum of therapeutic applications, including their use as anticancer peptides. These peptides have as target microbial, normal, and cancerous cells. The oncological properties of these peptides may occur by membranolytic mechanisms or non-membranolytics. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time the cytotoxic effects of the cationic alpha-helical antimicrobial peptide LyeTx I-b on glioblastoma lineage U87-MG. The anticancer property of this peptide was associated with a membranolytic mechanism. Loss of membrane integrity occurred after incubation with the peptide for 15 min, as shown by trypan blue uptake, reduction of calcein-AM conversion, and LDH release. Morphological studies using scanning electron microscopy demonstrated disruption of the plasma membrane from cells treated with LyeTx I-b, including the formation of holes or pores. Transmission electron microscopy analyses showed swollen nuclei with mild DNA condensation, cell volume increase with an electron-lucent cytoplasm and organelle vacuolization, but without the rupture of nuclear or plasmatic membranes. Morphometric analyses revealed a high percentage of cells in necroptosis stages, followed by necrosis and apoptosis at lower levels. Necrostatin-1, a known inhibitor of necroptosis, partially protected the cells from the toxicity of the peptide in a concentration-dependent manner. Imaging flow cytometry confirmed that 59% of the cells underwent necroptosis after 3-h incubation with the peptide. It is noteworthy that LyeTx I-b showed only mild cytotoxicity against normal fibroblasts of human and monkey cell lines and low hemolytic activity in human erythrocytes. All data together point out the anticancer potential of this peptide.
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Abbreviations
- Cryo-EM:
-
Cryo-electron microscopy
- TEM:
-
Transmission electron microscope
- SEM:
-
Scanning electron microscope
- Nec-1:
-
Necrostatin
- GBM:
-
Glioblastoma multiform
- RIPK1:
-
Receptor interacting protein kinas-1
- TNF:
-
Tumor necrosis factor
- CAMPs:
-
Cationic antimicrobial peptides
- LDH:
-
Lactate dehydrogenase
- PBMC:
-
Peripheral blood mononuclear cell
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Acknowledgements
Some of the light and fluorescence microscopy data shown in this work were obtained at Centro de Aquisição e Processamento de Imagens (CAPI-ICB/UFMG; http://www.icb.ufmg.br/capi/). Experiments and analyses involving electron microscopy were performed at the Center of Microscopy of UFMG (http://www.microscopia.ufmg.br).
Funding
This work was supported and financed by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico), FAPEMIG (Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais), CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) in Brazil and the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation/Germany (Process 99999.008121/2014-01). Abdel-Salam, M. A. L. and Elaine M. Souza-Fagundes are recipients of CAPES fellowship, and Maria Elena de Lima Drug Discovery grant. On top, this work was supported by the Land BW (Germany), the Doerenkamp-Zbinden foundation, the DFG (RTG1331, KoRS-CB), the BMBF (NeuriTox) and the European Project EU-ToxRisk.
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Authors declare no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge, or beliefs in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
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The collection of human blood samples was a part of the project approved by the UFMG Research Ethics Committee (COEP), under Protocol Number 666.658/2016, and all healthy donors provided written consent.
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Abdel-Salam, M.A.L., Carvalho-Tavares, J., Gomes, K.S. et al. The synthetic peptide LyeTxI-b derived from Lycosa erythrognatha spider venom is cytotoxic to U-87 MG glioblastoma cells. Amino Acids 51, 433–449 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-018-2678-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-018-2678-4