Montivipera bornmuelleri venom selectively exhibits high cytotoxic effects on keratinocytes cancer cell lines.

CONTEXT: The Viperidae family venom is a rich source of bioactive compounds such as many proteases, which cause tissue necrosis and affect mostly the vascular system. However, the venom exhibits therapeutic potentials and has contributed to the development of some medical drugs. Specifically, the Montivipera bornmuelleri venom has shown to exhibit antibacterial, pro-inflammatory and antifungal activities.

OBJECTIVE: This work evaluates the cytotoxic effect of the M. bornmuelleri venom on human-derived keratinocytes including the non-tumorigenic HaCaT, the benign A5 and the low-grade malignant II4 cells.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The toxicity of different venom concentrations (0.9, 1.87, 3.75, 7.5, 15, 30 and 60μg/mL) and their effect on the viability of the cells lines were assessed using the Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) activity and the Trypan blue tests after 24h of incubation.

RESULTS: The venom was able to reduce the viability of all cell lines in a dose dependent manner with the HaCat cells being the least affected. For example, the 60μg/mL dose induced a more significant decrease the viability of A5 (44%) and II4 (21.33%) keratinocytes as compared to HaCaT cells (70.63%). Also, this venom showed a higher cytotoxic activity on the A5 (52.45%) and II4 (98.67%) cells as compared to HaCaT cells (30.14%) with an IC50 estimated at 10μg/mL on II4 and at 60μg/mL on benign A5.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Those differential cytotoxic effects of the M. bornmuelleri venom pave the road for more advanced studies which might unravel the potential anticancer effects of this venom.