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Design and Synthesis of a Novel Antimicrobial Peptide Targeting β-catenin in Human Breast Cancer Cell lines

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Abstract

Antimicrobial peptides which play a vital role in an innate immune defense mechanism of various organisms can be regarded as novel therapeutic agents for targeted therapy to cure cancer. In the present study, a novel antimicrobial peptide which has a prominent anticancer property was identified by investigating the binding efficiency of it with the target protein, β-catenin, and named as SKACP003. Further SKACP003 was synthesized chemically and its cytotoxic effect against the following breast cancer cell lines, namely, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-453 were explored. It was observed that SKACP003 induced dose-dependent cytotoxicity in all the above mentioned cell lines. Moreover, by using the AO/EB, Hoechst, and JC1 staining procedures we recokned that the peptide SKACP003 brought out effective morphological changes, apoptosis, and mitochondrial membrane potential loss, respectively, on the three cell lines considered. In addition to that, there was a great extent of DNA damage noticed in the cell lines concerned with the aid of comet assay. Altogether, we conclude that the anticancer property of SKACP003 can be meticulously invoked, after further evaluations at the molecular level to design a new valiant drug, to cure breast cancer.

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Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledge the help received from Prof. R. Thirumurugan, Department of Animal Science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli—620 024, India. Also the authors wish to acknowledge the support received from Dr. M. Karthikeyan and Mr. L. Lakshmanan, Department of Bioinformatics, Alagappa University, Karaikudi-630 003, India in the form of docking studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, J.J College of Arts and Science (Autonomous), Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Kanitha Selvarathinam

  2. Bharathidasan University Constituent College, Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India

    Malarvili Thekkumalai

  3. National Centre for Alternatives Animal Experiments, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India

    Balaji Perumalsamy

  4. Department of Biochemistry, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India

    Ravikumar Vilwanathan

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  1. Kanitha Selvarathinam
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  2. Malarvili Thekkumalai
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Correspondence to Kanitha Selvarathinam.

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Selvarathinam, K., Thekkumalai, M., Perumalsamy, B. et al. Design and Synthesis of a Novel Antimicrobial Peptide Targeting β-catenin in Human Breast Cancer Cell lines. Int J Pept Res Ther 27, 1849–1860 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10989-021-10215-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10989-021-10215-x

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