Assessment of tumor-suppressive inflammatory tendency of Echis coloratus venom against colon carcinogenesis, via up-regulation of anti-tumorigenic inflammatory cells and down-regulation of pro-tumorigenic inflammatory cells, in colon cancer cell lines

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the tumor-suppressive inflammatory tendency of Echis coloratus snake venom against colon cancer. For this purpose, venom induced up/down-regulation effects in response to forty types of colon-cancer related pro and anti-tumorigenic inflammatory cells (11 pro-tumorigenic cytokines, 12 anti-tumorigenic cytokines, 9 pro-tumorigenic chemokines, 1 anti-tumorigenic chemokine and 7 pro-tumorigenic growth factors) were measured, in LoVo, HT-29 and HCT-116 colon cancer cells. As a result, the tumor-suppressive inflammatory effects of venom were screened by its capability to significantly up-regulate four anti-tumorigenic cytokines (IL-1RA, IL-7, IL-9 and IL-15) and to down-regulate one pro-tumorigenic cytokines (IL-1β), three pro-tumorigenic chemokines (MCP-1, MCP-3 and RANTES) and two pro-tumorigenic growth factors (G-CSF and PDGF-AA). Moreover, the venom showed significant colon-tumor promoting potential for fifteen inflammatory cells (IFN-γ, IL-1α, IL-13, TNF-α, EOTAXIN, MIP-1β, GRO, MDC, IL-8, FGF2, GM-CSF, VEGF, PDGF-AB/BB, FRACTALKIN and TGF-α). The tendency of E. coloratus venom to exhibit tumor-suppressive inflammatory effects can be effectively used to reduce the growing phase of colon cancer.

Keywords:

• Colon cancer
• Echis coloratus
• tumor-suppressive inflammatory effects
• cytokines
• chemokines
• growth factors

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank to Dr. Mohammad K.D. AL-Sadoon for their great efforts in the process of snake venom isolation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The present research was supported by a grant from the Research Centre of the Female Scientific and Medical Colleges, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.