Introduction: Bioactive peptides are generally inactive oligopeptides activated by metabolic processes, such as enzymatic hydrolysis, intestinal digestion, and fermentation. These peptides are low in molecular weight, easy to digest, and also are more function than native proteins. One of the great source of biological peptides is extracted from fish, and as researches showed fish-derived protein peptides have anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and cytoprotective functions.
Methods: K562 cells after culture in RPMI culture medium and HEK293 in DMEM culture medium and incubation at 37°C temperature with 95% humidity and 5% CO2, when they grew enough to perform MTT test in 96 plate culture house and then After treatment with extracted peptides and adding MTT dyes and DMSO in specific time intervals, the results were evaluated with ELISA reader. Hoechst's test was used to investigate the occurrence of apoptosis, and the cells were cultured in 24 house plates and treated with peptides, and the results were evaluated with a fluorescence microscope.
Results: After treatment of the cells with these extracted peptides and MTT assay evaluation, a decrease in cytotoxicity and an increase in antiproliferative effects were observed in K562 cell line, and there was no effect on HEK cell line. In addition Hoechst test and pictures taken form fluorescence microscopy showed the effect of induction of apoptosis on K562 cell line
Conclusion: Therefore, bioactive peptides with anti-cancer activity provide new opportunities in drug development for the treatment of cancer because they specifically target cancer cells and have little or no toxicity on healthy cells and tissues.