A new active peptide from Neptunea arthritica cumingii exerts protective effects against gentamicin-induced sensory-hair cell injury in zebrafish

Abstract

Gentamicin is commonly used for effective treatment of severe Gram-negative bacterial infections. However, its use is being increasingly restricted owing to the ototoxic effects attributed to it. Gentamicin-induced ototoxicity is thought to be related with apoptosis induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, we found a novel active peptide from Neptunea arthritica cumingii with otoprotective effects and no significant embryotoxic effects. The combined application of gentamicin and this novel active peptide helped sensory-hair cells to protect themselves from lethal ROS accumulation. This, in turn, reduced the expression of three genes (caspase-3, caspase-9, Bax), and thereby, the sensory-hair cell apoptosis promoted by ROS accumulation upon gentamicin administration. Our findings provided new insights into the prevention of gentamicin-induced hearing loss.

Keywords:

• Active peptide
• gentamicin
• sensory hair cell
• zebrafish
• ototoxicity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects of Ocean under Grant [number 201505030–2]; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [number 81703624]; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [number 81602982]; the Youth fund of Shandong Academy of Sciences under Grant [number 2018QN0027], the Natural Science Funds of Shandong Province under Grant [number ZR2016YL009], and the Mount Taishan Scholar Program under Grant [number tspd20181211].