ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIM: The importance of earthworm in treatment of various diseases has been proven in ancient literatures. Nowadays, with advances in biotechnology, earthworm is considered a rich natural source of many biomolecules that possesses antioxidant and antitumor activities. The present study aimed to evaluate the antitumor activity of earthworm powder (Lumbricus terrestris) against two cell lines, breast cancer cells (MCF-7) and prostate cancer cells (PC-3). METHODS: Fully matured earthworms (L. terrestris) were collected from soil in Baghdad, Iraq. To assess the cytotoxicity of earthworm powder, the MTT assay was conducted on cancerous (MCF-7 and PC-3 cells) and normal cell line (WRL68 cells) lines. RESULTS: It was revealed that earthworm powder exerts cytotoxic effects against two cancer cell lines. The viability of MCF-7 and PC-3 cells decreased with increasing the concentration. The IC50 values for PC-3 and MCF-7 cell lines were 265.5 and 965.9 µg/ml, respectively, while the earthworm powder exhibited no cytotoxicity against the WRL68 cells. According to the analysis of the results of the multiple cytotoxicity assay (HCS), the treatment of PC-3 cells with 100, 200, and 400 µg/ml of earthworm powder for 24 h at 37 °C led to cell death by changing the permeability of mitochondrial membrane resulting in cytochrome C release and inducing apoptosis. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study contribute additional evidence for the antitumor activity of earthworm extracts. Therefore, further research should concentrate on isolating and identifying the earthworm's active biomolecules that have antitumor activity by investigating the molecular mechanism, genetics, and pathways responsible for the antitumor activity of these biomolecules.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Agents/administration & dosage , Neoplasms/drug therapy , Oligochaeta/chemistry , Tissue Extracts/administration & dosage , Animals , Cell Proliferation/drug effects , Cell Survival/drug effects , Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor , Humans , Iraq , MCF-7 Cells , Neoplasms/pathology , PC-3 Cells , PowdersABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: GST belongs to a super family of phase II detoxification enzyme and it plays an important role in preventing the damage that may occur due to reactive water-soluble compounds generated by the association of reactive intermediates with glutathione. METHOD: In the present study, we analyzed the frequencies of GSTP1 polymorphism among the Iraqi population using PCR-RFLP technique. Fifty samples from bronchial asthma patients and fifty samples from control cases were subjected to conventional PCR and Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) to detect GSTP1 genotype and measured different parameters together such as IgE, eosinophilic count, WBC, and so forth. Some of the cases were made to undergo sequence analysis and enrolled in NCBI GenBank with accession number (MG657249-MG657258). The GSTP1 polymorphism was determined using PCR and the resultant 176-bp fragment was subjected to RFLP and digested with BsamA1 to recognize the A-G transition at nucleotide. RESULTS: Homozygotes for Ile105 encoding allele resulted in 176-bp fragment found in 62% andVal105 encoding allele had two fragments of 91 and 85 bp in PCR was found in 4% of asthmatic patients. On the other hand, heterozygotes resulted in three fragments of 176, 91 and 85 bp seen in 34% of patients. CONCLUSION: To the best of the researcher's knowledge, this is the first-of-its-kind report with regards to the role played by GSTP1 polymorphism in bronchial asthma among the Iraqi patients. Though the study outcomes do not support the large role played by GSTP1 gene polymorphism in the evolution of bronchial asthma disorder, future researchers are suggested to investigate more features for many promising results.
