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The Anticancer Effect of a Conjugated Antimicrobial Peptide Against Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Cells

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Abstract

Purpose

Although antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) were initially known as compounds of the innate immune system to fight microbial pathogens, it has been recently proposed that differences in normal and cancer cell membranes cause the anticancer effect of these peptides. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anticancer effect of MELITININ+BMAP27-conjugated peptide against colorectal cancer (CRC) cells.

Methods

The MELITININ+BMAP27-conjugated peptides were designed and the β-naphthylalanine residues were added to the termini to improve the anticancer effect. CRC cancer cell lines including HT29, SW742, HCT-116, and WiDr were used. After preparing concentrations of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, and 400 μg/mL of peptide solution, the rate of cell death after 12, 24, and 48 h was assessed using MTT test. After confirmation of the 30 µg/mL efficacy and nontoxic concentration, the cells were exposed to this concentration, and the total RNA was extracted. The quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) technique was performed for the amplification of Bax, caspase3, atg5, and GAPDH (glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase as the internal control) genes.

Results

The cytotoxicity of peptide against normal cells exhibited that the IC50 at 24 and 4 h included 80 and 100 µg/mL, respectively. After 24–72 h of treatment, a significant difference in the mean percentage of CRC living cells was observed at concentrations of 50–400 μg/mL of conjugated peptide (p < 0.05). The IC50 of the peptide at 24, 48, and 72 h of exposure was measured as 30, 20, and 10 μg/mL, respectively. The peptide resulted in a significant increase of 2.35-fold in the mean expression of Bax gene in CRC cells (p < 0.001). It also caused a significant increase of 1.75 times (p = 0.0112) of caspase 3 gene and 1.2 times (p = 0.0217) of atg5 gene. There was no significant difference among cell lines regarding the expression of each gene.

Conclusion

The conjugated peptide caused the death of CRC lines via induction of the apoptosis and necrosis mechanisms. More studies are needed in this regard.

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Availability of Data and Materials

All the data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).

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Acknowledgements

This study was performed by the authors.

Funding

This study was supported by Al-Maarif University College, Iraq.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy, Al-Maarif University College, Ramadi City, Al-Anbar, Iraq

    Raed Obaid Saleh

  2. Kufa Technical Institute, Al-Furat/Al, Awsat Technical University, Najaf, Iraq

    Ihsan Naji Atiyah Essia

  3. Medical Laboratory Techniques Department, Al-Maarif University College, Ramadi City, Iraq

    Saade Abdalkareem Jasim

Authors
  1. Raed Obaid Saleh
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  2. Ihsan Naji Atiyah Essia
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  3. Saade Abdalkareem Jasim
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Contributions

All the authors have participated equally.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Saade Abdalkareem Jasim.

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Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

This study was approved by the ethics committee of Al-maarif University. All the authors had the written consent to participate (those subjects without the consent had been excluded from the study).

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All the authors have the consent of publication. Moreover, the patients have the consent of participation and publication.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Saleh, R.O., Essia, I.N.A. & Jasim, S.A. The Anticancer Effect of a Conjugated Antimicrobial Peptide Against Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Cells. J Gastrointest Canc 54, 165–170 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12029-021-00799-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12029-021-00799-4

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