Montivipera bornmuelleri venom selectively exhibits high cytotoxic effects on keratinocytes cancer cell lines

Context

The Viperidae family venom is a rich source of bioactive compounds such as many proteases, which cause tissue necrosis and affect mostly the vascular system. However, the venom exhibits therapeutic potentials and has contributed to the development of some medical drugs. Specifically, the Montivipera bornmuelleri venom has shown to exhibit antibacterial, pro-inflammatory and antifungal activities.

Objective

This work evaluates the cytotoxic effect of the M. bornmuelleri venom on human-derived keratinocytes including the non-tumorigenic HaCaT, the benign A5 and the low-grade malignant II4 cells.

Materials and methods

The toxicity of different venom concentrations (0.9, 1.87, 3.75, 7.5, 15, 30 and 60 μg/mL) and their effect on the viability of the cells lines were assessed using the Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) activity and the Trypan blue tests after 24 h of incubation.

Results

The venom was able to reduce the viability of all cell lines in a dose dependent manner with the HaCat cells being the least affected. For example, the 60 μg/mL dose induced a more significant decrease the viability of A5 (44%) and II4 (21.33%) keratinocytes as compared to HaCaT cells (70.63%). Also, this venom showed a higher cytotoxic activity on the A5 (52.45%) and II4 (98.67%) cells as compared to HaCaT cells (30.14%) with an IC₅₀ estimated at 10 μg/mL on II4 and at 60 μg/mL on benign A5.

Discussion and conclusion

Those differential cytotoxic effects of the M. bornmuelleri venom pave the road for more advanced studies which might unravel the potential anticancer effects of this venom.