Abstract
Nowadays, cancer has become a pervasive disease in the world. Due to the side effects of chemotherapeutic agents, the use of peptides has been increasingly popular among scientists. The present study aimed to assess the cell toxicity and the change in the expression of Bcl-2, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and Bax genes in HepG2 cancer cell line treated with peptides HL-7 (YLYELAR) and HL-10 (AFPYYGHHLG) using MTT, western blot and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analyses. The results showed that HL-7 and HL-10 peptides significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited the growth of HepG2 cancer cells; however, they did not cause any marked toxicity on human lymphocyte cells. Also, the treatment of HepG2 cancer cells with HL-7 and HL-10 led to a significant (p < 0.05) increase in the expression of TNF-α and Bax genes, as well as a substantial decrease in the expression of Bcl-2 at both protein and mRNA levels. It seems that the two peptides may contribute to increasing the expression of TNF-α, along with the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2, which may result in activating the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis in HepG2 cancer cells. Thus, these two peptides may be useful therapeutic options for the treatment of hepatocarcinoma in the future.
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Abbreviations
- TNF-α:
-
Tumor necrosis factor-alpha
- TNFR1:
-
tumor necrosis factor receptor 1
- DMEM:
-
Dulbecco’s minimum essential medium
- MTT:
-
3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide
- DMSO:
-
dimethyl sulfoxide
- FBS:
-
fetal bovine serum
- BSA:
-
bovine serum albumin
- PMSF:
-
phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride
- HEPES:
-
N-2-hydroxyethyl piperazine-N-ethane sulfonic acid
- cDNA:
-
complementary DNA
- PBMCs:
-
peripheral blood mononuclear cells
- PBS:
-
phosphate-buffered saline
- GAPDH:
-
glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase
- TBST:
-
Tris-buffered saline tween
- HRP:
-
Horseradish Peroxidase
- RT-PCR:
-
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction
- ROS:
-
reactive oxygen species
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The authors appreciate the support provided by the University of Zabol (Grant code: UOZ-GR-9718-96, 1399/07/28).
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ZS-M; sample design and methodology, investigation and data collection, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript writing and editing; AA; research conceptualization, manuscript writing, and editing, MP; manuscript writing and editing.
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Setayesh-Mehr, Z., Asoodeh, A. & Poorsargol, M. Upregulation of Bax, TNF-α and down-regulation of Bcl-2 in liver cancer cells treated with HL-7 and HL-10 peptides. Biologia 76, 2735–2743 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-021-00800-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-021-00800-2