Bioactivities of crude mucus proteins from Eudrilus eugeniae (African night crawler) and Perionyx excavatus (Blue worm).

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the enzymatic anti-oxidative, hemolytic and cytotoxic activities of crude mucus proteins from the two earthworms including Eudrilus eugeniae (African night crawler) and Perionyx excavatus (Blue worm).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The bioactivities were determined by hemolytic activity, cytotoxic activity using HepG2 human hepatocellular carcinoma cells, L-929 mouse fibroblast and TK6 human lymphoblast cell lines and antioxidant activity.

RESULTS: The results indicated that the hemolytic activity of mucus proteins of P. excavatus was higher than that of E. eugeniae. The cytotoxic activity of the mucus proteins of E. eugeniae could inhibit the growth of HepG2 with the IC50 at 144.2 ± 0.18 µg/mL but showed no effect on L-929 and TK6. On the other hand, the crude proteins of P. excavatus decreased cell viability of both L-929 and HepG2 with their IC50 respectively were 6.87 ± 0.16 and 174.3 ± 0.19 µg/mL but they did not reduce the growth of TK6 cell line. The SOD-like activity of P. excavatus and E. eugeniae crude proteins were found with the IC50 at 149 µg/mL and 386.2 µg/mL, respectively. For GPx-like activity, crude proteins of P. excavatus exhibited significant (p ≤ 0.05) greater activity than those of E. eugeniae when tested at the concentration 100 µg/mL.

CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed the bioactivities of crude mucus of earthworms which served as alternative natural proteins for the prophylaxis or treatment of free radical-related diseases as well as development of dietary supplements and cosmetics.