Search

aims: To investigate anticancer activity of sericin preparation from cocoons of A. proylei. background: In spite of much progress in understanding the biology of cancer disease, advancement in technology for early diagnosis, the expanding array of anticancer drugs and treatment modalities, the global cancer burden is still significant and increasing. It is estimated that the new cases of cancer in the year 2040 will be 29.4 million per year globally. Sericin, an adhesive protein of silk cocoons has been shown to be a potential protein in various biomedical applications including cancer therapeutics. The present study evaluates the anticancer property of sericin from cocoons of Antheraea proylei J (SAP) against human lung cancer (A549) and cervical cancer (HeLa) cell lines. This is the first report of anti-cancer activity of the non-mulberry silkworm A. proylei J. objective: 1. Establish antiproliferative potential of SAP. 2. Identify the molecular mechanism of cell death induced by SAP on two different cell lines. method: SAP was prepared from cocoons of A. proylei J. by the process of degumming method. The amino acid composition of SAP was determined by HPLC. Cytotoxicity activity was assessed by MTT assay and genotoxicity activity was assessed by comet assay. Cleavage of caspase and PARP proteins and phosphorylation of MAPK pathway members were analysed by Western blotting. Cell cycle analysis was done by flow cytometer. result: SAP causes cytotoxicity to A549 and HeLa cell lines with the IC50 values 3.8 and 3.9 µg/µl respectively. SAP induces apoptosis in a dose dependent manner through caspase-3 and p38, MAPK pathways in A549 and HeLa cells. Moreover, in A549 and HeLa cells SAP induces cell cycle arrest at S phase in a dose dependent manner. conclusion: The difference in the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis induced by SAP in A549 and HeLa cell lines may be due to the difference in the genotypes of the cancer cell lines. However, further investigation is warranted. The overall results of the present study envisage the possibility of using SAP as anti-tumorigenic agent. other: This is the first report of sericin preparation from A. proylei to show anticancer activity. Other reports were from domesticated silkworms.

Background We have previously reported that a new intronless gene for casein kinase 2α (CK2α), CSNK2A3, is expressed in human cells. The promoter of the well-known CK2α, CSNK2A1, displays characteristics of a housekeeping gene, whereas CSNK2A3 has a characteristic of a regulated promoter with two TATA boxes and a CAAT box. GPR68, a family of the G protein-coupled receptors, is also known as ovarian cancer G protein-coupled receptor 1 (OGR1). In the current study, we analyzed the roles of CK2α genes and neutral endopeptidase (NEP), a key enzyme that influences a variety of malignancies, in the OGR1-induced inhibition of A549 cell migration. Methods We analyzed the transcript expressions of both the CK2α genes (CSNK2A1 and CSNK2A3) and NEP upon OGR1 overexpression. Protein expression of CK2α and NEP were also analyzed. We further elucidated the functional roles of both CK2α and NEP in the OGR1-induced inhibition of A549 cell migration in vitro using a wound-healing assay. We also analyzed the molecular mechanisms involved in the OGR1-induced inhibition of lung cancer cell migration. Results The findings of this study showed that OGR1 upregulated the expression of CSNK2A3 but not CSNK2A1 in the A549 cells. The findings further suggested OGR1 also upregulates the expression of NEP. The OGR1-induced inhibition of A549 cell migration was abrogated completely by inhibition of CK2α activity, whereas partial abrogation (~ 30%) was observed in the presence of NEP inhibition. The results also revealed that OGR1 regulates CSNK2A3 via activation of Rac1/cdc42 and MAPKs pathways. CK2 is ubiquitously expressed, and in contrast, is believed to be a constitutively active enzyme, and its regulation appears to be independent of known second messengers. Conclusion In the current study, we report for the first time the OGR1-induced regulation of CSNK2A3, CK2αP, and NEP in A549 cancer cells. Our study also decoded the downstream cellular proteins of OGR1 as well as the molecular mechanism involved in OGR1-induced inhibition of A549 cell migration. The findings of this research suggest the potential therapeutic targets to inhibit lung cancer progression.