Venom present in Heteractis magnifica induces apoptosis in human lung cancer A549 cells

3^rd World Congress on Cancer Science & Therapy

October 21-23, 2013 DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Francisco Airport, CA, USA

Mahnaz Ramezanpour

Accepted Abstracts: J Cancer Sci Ther

Abstract :

Lung cancer is a major cause of cancer deaths throughout the word but the complexity of apoptosis resistance in lung cancer is unclear. This study defined important roles for inducing apoptosis in A549 human lung cancer cell line with sea anemone venom. In our previous study we found Heteractis magnifica displayed cytotoxic and cytolytic activity on human lung cancer cell line. However the detailed mechanism underlying this process has not yet been elucidated. This study shows that chemo- preventive action of venom from H. magnifica might be due to its ability to induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. H. magnifica venom inhibited the growth of A549 cells line in a concentration dependent manner. The venom at 40 μg/ml on A549 cell line induced 32.2% apoptosis compared to 2.2% in untreated cells. Caspase 3/7 assay and JC-1 staining detected increases in the levels of apoptosis-regulating proteins and mitochondrial membrane potential, respectively. The findings of this study indicate that the crude extracts from H. magnifica induce apoptosis in A549 human lung cancer cell line and that this phenomenon is mediated via both the death receptor-mediated and mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway. Thus, novel compounds from H. magnifica may be developed as effective treatments for lung cancer.

Biography :

Mahnaz Ramezanpour is a Ph.D. student in Medical Biotechnology, Flinders University. He has already generated a significant data on the project. The data have been published, presented at a conference and the maintenance funded by grant. One paper has been accepted, two are under review. He has trained Masters and Honours? research students to carry out some of these techniques in our laboratory. He has acted as a tutor for undergraduate students in the school of Biochemistry and also, has been a demonstrator for undergraduate students in the school of Biological Sciences.