Anti-cancer and anti-bacterial effects of crude venom of Pseudocerastes persicus snake

Antibiotic resistance has been reported as one of the world's most critical public health problems.
Recent investigations have demonstrated that venom of some species of snakes have antimicrobial and anticancer activities. In this study, we investigated the antibacterial and anticancer effects of Persian horned viper venom. Antibacterial activity was examined on Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and antitumor effect was analyzed on human hepatocellular liver carcinoma cell line (HepG2).

Bactericidal-activity of crude venom in concentrations of 6.25-400 μg/ml was performed using MTT reduction, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), agar-well diffusion and disc diffusion methods. Tetracycline (50 μg/ml) was used as standard antibiotic. Cytotoxic effect in HepG2 cell were measured by MTT reduction assay and confirmed with neutral uptake assay following exposure of cells with different concentrations of venom (50-400 μg/ml). Apoptotic effect was investigated using comet assay.

Our findings demonstrated that venom displays higher inhibitory effects against Gram-positive bacteria as compared to Gram-negative. Furthermore, venom showed anticancer activity on HepG2 cell line through induction of apoptosis and necrosis.

This study showed that raw venom of Iranian horned viper has antibacterial and anti-cancer activity. These properties make venom of this viper a potential source for isolation of effective molecule(s) having antibacterial and antitumor activity.