Source Publication (e.g., journal title)

Scientific Reports

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-15-2016

DOI

10.1038/srep33532

Abstract

Momordica charantia is a perennial plant with reported health benefits. BG-4, a novel peptide from Momordica charantia, was isolated, purified and characterized. The trypsin inhibitory activity of BG-4 is 8.6 times higher than purified soybean trypsin inhibitor. The high trypsin inhibitory activity of BG-4 may be responsible for its capability to cause cytotoxicity to HCT-116 and HT-29 human colon cancer cells with ED50values of 134.4 and 217.0 μg/mL after 48 h of treatment, respectively. The mechanism involved in the cytotoxic effect may be associated with induction of apoptosis as evidenced by increased percentage of HCT-116 and HT-29 colon cancer cells undergoing apoptosis from 5.4% (untreated) to 24.8% (BG-4 treated, 125 μg/mL for 16 h) and 8.5% (untreated) to 31.9% (BG-4 treated, 125 μg/mL for 16 h), respectively. The molecular mechanistic explanation in the apoptosis inducing property of BG-4 is due to reduced expression of Bcl-2 and increased expression of Bax leading to increased expression of caspase-3 and affecting the expression of cell cycle proteins p21 and CDK2. This is the first report on the anti-cancer potential of a novel bioactive peptide isolated from Momordica charantia in vitro supporting the potential therapeutic property of BG-4 against colon cancer that must be addressed using in vivo models of colon carcinogenesis.

Comments

This article was published openly thanks to the University of Tennessee Open Publishing Support Fund.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Submission Type

Publisher's Version

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