The silk of Plodia interpunctella as a potential biomaterial and its cytotoxic effect on cancer cells

Abstract

Insect silk has been widely studied for its application in regenerative medicine. However, the data about Plodia interpunctella silk as a biomaterial and its anticancer properties are insufficient. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate native silk as a substrate for growing normal human fibroblasts MRC-5, and test potential cytotoxic effects of the two silk extracts (with DMSO and Trypsin for sericin isolation) on HCT-116 colorectal carcinoma cells and MRC-5 fibroblasts as a control. Fifth-instar larval silk, collected for 15 and 30 days, was used for testing of proliferation and adhesion of MRC-5, 24 h and 72 h after seeding. Light- and fluorescence-microscope showed cell adhesion and spread on silk, as well as enhanced number of cells after 72 compared to 24 h and nonsignificant percentage of apoptotic cells on the silk. Although insoluble, P. interpunctella silk showed remarkable cytotoxic activity on HCT-116 cells, without significant cytotoxity on normal fibroblasts after 24 h and weak effects after 72 h. This study provides significant information about P. interpunctella silk as a potential biomaterial and shows the presence of some active constituents with anticancer properties, thus pointing to the possibility for exploitation of this worldwide pest insect in biomedical application.

Keywords:

• Anticancer activity
• biomaterial
• cell adhesion
• pest moth
• sericin

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia (projects III41010 and OI 173038).