1 Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University , Riyadh, Saudi Arabia .
2 Genome Research Chair, Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University , Riyadh, Saudi Arabia .
Cancer Biother Radiopharm. 2018 Mar;33(2):65-73. doi: 10.1089/cbr.2017.2400.
Samsum ant venom (SAV) is a rich repertoire of natural compounds with tremendous pharmacological properties. The present work explores its antineoplastic activity in different cell lines followed by its confirmation in vivo. The cell lines, HepG2, MCF-7, and LoVo showed the differential dose-dependent antineoplastic effect with an increased level of significant cytokines, including Interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 and transcription factor, Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB). However, the venom was more effective on HepG2 and MCF-7 cells than LoVo cells. Furthermore, the extract was administered to four groups (n = 8) of rats. Group I was taken as a control without any treatment, whereas group II received CCl (1 mL/kg) for induction of mild hepatoma. Group III was given 100 μg/kg of SAV twice a week for 1 month. Group IV was pretreated with the CCl (like group II) followed by dosing with SAV (100 μg/kg) for 2 months as per the authors' prestandardized dosing schedule. Intriguingly, the rats of group IV demonstrated significant decrease in key cytokines, IL-1β and IL-6, as well as the transcription factors, including Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-α), NF-κB, and Inhibitor-kappa B (I-κB) as compared with group II. Furthermore, increase in IL-10 and First apoptosis signal (FAS) in the same group confirmed that SAV induces apoptosis at the given dose through immunomodulation leading to enhanced tumor killing in vivo. Hence, SAV has an excellent antineoplastic activity that can be directly used to treat certain types of cancer. Moreover, study of its ingredients can pave ways to design novel anticancer drugs. However, further in-depth investigation is required before its clinical trials.
山桑子毒液（SAV）是一种富含天然化合物的丰富组合，具有巨大的药理学特性。本研究探索了其在不同细胞系中的抗肿瘤活性，并在体内进行了验证。细胞系 HepG2、MCF-7 和 LoVo 表现出不同剂量依赖性的抗肿瘤作用，同时伴有细胞因子，包括白细胞介素（IL）-1β、IL-6 和 IL-8 以及转录因子核因子-κB（NF-κB）水平的显著升高。然而，该毒液对 HepG2 和 MCF-7 细胞的作用比对 LoVo 细胞更有效。此外，该提取物被给予四组（n=8）大鼠。第一组作为无任何治疗的对照组，而第二组接受 CCl（1mL/kg）诱导轻度肝癌。第三组每周两次给予 100μg/kg 的 SAV 持续 1 个月。第四组按照作者的预标准化给药方案，先用 CCl（如第二组）预处理，然后给予 SAV（100μg/kg）给药 2 个月。有趣的是，与第二组相比，第四组大鼠的关键细胞因子，如 IL-1β和 IL-6，以及转录因子，如肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）、NF-κB 和 I-κB，均显著减少。此外，同一组中白细胞介素 10 和第一凋亡信号（FAS）的增加证实，SAV 通过免疫调节在给予的剂量下诱导细胞凋亡，从而在体内增强肿瘤杀伤作用。因此，SAV 具有出色的抗肿瘤活性，可直接用于治疗某些类型的癌症。此外，对其成分的研究可以为设计新型抗癌药物铺平道路。然而，在进行临床试验之前，还需要进行进一步的深入研究。
