Anticancer Effect of Isolated Fraction from Hemiscorpius lepturus Venom on Brain Cancer Glioblastoma Cells

Cancer is a complex disease characterized by uncontrolled cell proliferation. It is a main global public health problem. Chemotherapy is the dominant method in the treatment of cancer and patients often show tumors that become resistant to the drug, leading to serious side effects and death. Brain cancer is about 31% of all cancers detected among children. Scorpion venoms are a source of useful biologically active compounds with anti-tumor effects. The purpose of this research, was purification of the fractions from the venom of Iranian scorpion, Hemiscorpius lepturus by gel filtration chromatography and evaluation of its anticancer activity on brain cancer cell line .
Scorpion venom was prepaired and after concentration determination, the venom fractions were purified by gel filtration chromatography using sephadex G50 and deried in a freeze dryer system. The molecular weight ranges of the fractions were detected in SDS-PAGE. The anticancer effect of each fraction was examined using different protein concentrations on U-87 MG cell line.
According to data obtained from gel filtration, seven FPLC fractions were collected. As the fraction No.4 was contained peptide fraction used for evaluation of anticancer activity. The anticancer effect of the peptide fraction on brain cancer cells was 47% in 0.31µg. No toxicity was observed on with fibroblast cells at this concentration.
Iranian scoprion venom had significant activity on brain cancer cell lines and no toxicity was shown on control cells. The use of natural compounds as potential anti-cancer agents that are derived from venomous animals could be assisted to fighting against cancer. This study is the first report regarding to existence of an anticancer fraction that is effective on glioblastoma cancer cell line derived fron the venon of Iranian scrorpion, H. lepturus.