Co-Localization of Crotamine with Internal Membranes and Accentuated Accumulation in Tumor Cells

Crotamine is a highly cationic; cysteine rich, cross-linked, low molecular mass cell penetrating peptide (CPP) from the venom of the South American rattlesnake. Potential application of crotamine in biomedicine may require its large-scale purification. To overcome difficulties related with the purif...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2018-04, Vol.23 (4), p.968
Main Authors: Mambelli-Lisboa, Nicole Caroline, Sciani, Juliana Mozer, Brandão Prieto da Silva, Alvaro Rossan, Kerkis, Irina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Cell Line, Tumor
Cell-Penetrating Peptides - metabolism
Crosslinking
Crotalid Venoms - metabolism
Data processing
Fluorescence
Intracellular Membranes - metabolism
Localization
Mass Spectrometry
Mass spectroscopy
Membranes
Mice
Microscopy
Molecular chains
Paralysis
Purification
Statistical analysis
Tumor cells
Tumors
Venom
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Crotamine is a highly cationic; cysteine rich, cross-linked, low molecular mass cell penetrating peptide (CPP) from the venom of the South American rattlesnake. Potential application of crotamine in biomedicine may require its large-scale purification. To overcome difficulties related with the purification of natural crotamine (nCrot) we aimed in the present study to synthesize and characterize a crotamine analog (sCrot) as well investigate its CPP activity. Mass spectrometry analysis demonstrates that sCrot and nCrot have equal molecular mass and biological function—the capacity to induce spastic paralysis in the hind limbs in mice. sCrot CPP activity was evaluated in a wide range of tumor and non-tumor cell tests performed at different time points. We demonstrate that sCrot-Cy3 showed distinct co-localization patterns with intracellular membranes inside the tumor and non-tumor cells. Time-lapse microscopy and quantification of sCrot-Cy3 fluorescence signalss in living tumor versus non-tumor cells revealed a significant statistical difference in the fluorescence intensity observed in tumor cells. These data suggest a possible use of sCrot as a molecular probe for tumor cells, as well as, for the selective delivery of anticancer molecules into these tumors.
ISSN:1420-3049
1420-3049
DOI:10.3390/molecules23040968