Screening and Evaluation Of The Anticancer Potential of Scorpion Venoms and Snake Venom L-Amino Acid Oxidase in Gastric Cancer

Abstract

In this study, the anticancer potentials of scorpion venoms and snake venom L-amino acid oxidase (LAAO) were screened and evaluated in gastric cancer in vitro and in vivo. Results showed that several scorpion venoms can decrease the cell viability/proliferation of various gastric and breast cancer cells and Hottentotta hottentotta scorpion venom (BHV) was selected. In vitro studies indicated that BHV induced a caspase-independent apoptosis in NUGC-3 cells and in vivo studies showed that BHV can inhibit the tumor growth. BHV was partially purified and characterized with the identification of LAAO as an active molecule. Subsequently, the LAAO from Crotalus adamanteus was evaluated with observation that a caspase-independent apoptosis was induced. Moreover, the involvement of oxidative stress and mitochondria dysfunction was discussed. Finally, by genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic approaches, the MAPK/ERK pathway was proposed to be inhibited in NUGC-3 by BHV and LAAO and some molecular targets of interest were discovered.