Effect of Echis carinatus snake venom and its purified fractions on the evolution of Ehrlich ascites tumor (EAT) cells

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of Echis carinatus crude venom and some of its isolated toxic fractions on Ehrlich ascites tumor (EAT) cells transplanted into the peritoneal cavity of the white female mice as an experimental model of fast growing tumor. The fractionation of the crude venom by gel filtration on sephadex G-%        &' , F , F and F ) while, the refractionation of these fractions by ion exchange chromatography using diethylamino ethyl cellulose (DEAE-cellulose) gave nine subfractions (F (, F ), F (, F ), F *, F (  F ), F ( and F )).All these separated subfractions were pure when tested by a third chromatographic step using SDS-PAGE and scanned with densitometer scan. Some in vitro biological properties of the crude venom and its isolated fractions were studied. It was found that F showed the highest value of protein content, followed by F and F (. On the other hand, it was found that no interrelationship between phospholipase enzyme activity (PLA ) and the protein contents of the crude venom and its isolated fractions. Toxicity studies were conducted on adult female Swiss albino mice to determine the approximate acute median lethal dose (LD% ) of the crude venom and its purified fractions. LD% of crude venom, F and F +    , -  .%  % /g/g b.w. In addition, F and F  were non-lethal, while after ion exchange chromatography, the only toxic fraction was F ( (LD% 0 #% /g/g b.w.). The inhibitory effect of crude venom, F and F ( on tumor growth was studied by treatment of EAT bearing mice with two intraperitoneul injections of the sublethal  &  1 23% ) of crude venom and its purified fractions F and F (. The +   ,     123% of the crude venom, F  and F ( was confirmed by a remarkable decrease of the viable tumor cells. This was accompanied by a significant increase in the number of dead cells, and increased percentage of survivals. On the other hand, the animals inoculated by EAT cells showed a significant increase in polymorphonuclear (PMN) and mononuclear (MN) leukocyte cells influx into the peritoneal fluid. It could be concluded that Echis carinatus crude venom and its isolated toxic fractions F and F ( showed a significant antitumor activity against EAT cells transplanted in the intraperitoneal cavity of white female albino mice.