Regulation of Caspase-3 and Bcl-2 Expression in Dalton's Lymphoma Ascites Cells by Abrin

V Ramnath,G Kuttan,P S Rekha,R Kuttan

doi:10.1093/ecam/nem099

Abstract

The role of abrin, a toxic lectin isolated from seeds of Abrus precatorius Linn in inducing apoptosis in murine Dalton's Lymphoma Ascites (DLA) cells was evaluated. Abrin when incubated at the concentration of 10 ng per million DLA cells could bring about cell death as typical morphological changes with apoptosis. However, necrotic cell death dominated when a higher dose of abrin was used. DNA samples, isolated from DLA cells treated with abrin showed fragmentation. Abrin brought about induction of apoptosis by stimulating the expression of pro-apoptotic Caspase-3, at the same time blocking the expression of Bcl-2, which is an anti apoptotic gene. However, the expression of tumor suppressor gene p53 has not been observed in control and abrin-treated DLA cells. Results suggested that abrin effectively induced apoptotic changes in the tumor cells that led to cellular death.

Highlights

Abrus precatorius Linn which is commonly known as Rosary pea/Jequirity bean belonging to family Leguminosea and subfamily Papilionoidea has a toxic glycoprotein lectin known as abrin in its seed
The DNA isolated from Dalton’s Lymphoma Ascites (DLA) cells treated with 10 ng abrin showed more fragmentation than those treated with 25 ng abrin
Results of the present study suggested that abrin could induce tumor cell death both by physiological or pathological means

Summary

Introduction

Abrus precatorius Linn which is commonly known as Rosary pea/Jequirity bean belonging to family Leguminosea and subfamily Papilionoidea has a toxic glycoprotein lectin known as abrin in its seed. Namely abrin I, II and III and two agglutinins, namely APA I and II, in the seeds A. precatorius, was isolated by lactamyl Sepharose affinity chromatography followed by gel filtration and DEAE Sephacel column chromatography [1]. From Ricinus communis, abrin is a type II ribosome inactivating protein that inhibits protein synthesis in eukaryotic cells. Some of the other documented actions of abrin being galactose specific [2], mitogenic [3], hemagglutinating [4], tumoricidal [5,6] and immunopotentiating [7,8].

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