Abstract
The treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) is important from a clinical prospective. Bee venom (BV) has shown anti-mutagenic, radio-protective, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumor activities. Thus, this study was designed to evaluate the anti-tumor effects of BV on colorectal cancer-derived HT-29 cells. MTT assay and flow cytometry analyses were carried out to evaluate the effect of the BV on the cell viability and the induction of apoptosis, respectively. The intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was measured using a ROS assay kit. The mRNA expression of cyclooxygenase − 2 (Cox-2), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) was evaluated using qRT-PCR. The IC50 value of BV for HT-29 cells at 24 h was 80 µg/mL. Unlike HT-29 cells, BV had no toxic impact on NIH/3T3 normal fibroblast cells. Bee venom also induced accumulation of cells in the Sub-G1 phase of the cell cycle and induced HT-29 cell apoptosis and necrosis. In addition, we found that BV could significantly prevent the production of ROS and thereby reduce the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in HT-29 cells (p < 0.05). This study suggests that BV might be a promising candidate to be developed as a natural agent against CRC.
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Abbreviations
- CRC :
-
Colorectal cancer.
- BV :
-
Bee venom.
- ROS :
-
Reactive Oxygen Species.
- TNF-α :
-
Tumor necrosis factor-alpha.
- IL-1β :
-
Interleukin 1 beta.
- NSAID :
-
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
- Cox-2 :
-
Cyclooxygenase-2.
- NAC :
-
N-acetyl cysteine.
- PI :
-
Propidium iodide.
- ASA :
-
Acetylsalicylic acid.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences for their financial support [Grant No. 960769].
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Hossein Saghi: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing – original draft. Farshad Mirzavi: Investigation, Methodology, Review and editing. Mohammad Jalili-Nik: Methodology, Formal analysis. Amir R. Afshari: Review and editing. Baratali Mashkani: Review and editing. Mohammad Soukhtanloo: Conceptualization, Supervision, Review and editing, Funding acquisition. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Saghi, H., Mirzavi, F., Afshari, A.R. et al. Bee venom induces anti-tumor effects in HT-29 colon cancer cells through regulation of cell proliferation and apoptosis. Biologia 77, 3595–3602 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-022-01201-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-022-01201-9