• Evaluation of the anticancer effect of gel filtration chromatography fractionation from cobra venom on glioblastoma cancer
  • Atefe Sadat Taheri Khezri,1,* Delavar Shahbazzade,2
    1. MSc in biochemistry,Department of Biochemistry- School of Advanced Sciences and Technology- Medical Sciences Breanch- Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
    2. Professor,Department of Biotechnology-Biotechnology Research Center-Venom and Biotherapeutics Molecules Lab-Pasteur Institute of Iran. Tehran. Iran.


  • Introduction: cancer is the most common cause of death from the disease in the world (1,2). Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer mortality (3,4). Metastasis occurs in 20% of patients suffering glioblastoma. Cancer cells transfer from the brain to different parts of the body including the lung, chest and colon (5). Glioblastoma is the most deadly from of the tumor (6,7). Although glioblastoma occurs in the brain stem cerebellum and spinal cord (8). there are many therapeutic methods available today but the mortality rate from glioblastoma cancer is very high in both adults and children (9). Therefore the human are looking natural resources such as poisonous animals that have the least side effects to treat cancer (10). Snake venom contains several different proteins, enzymes, peptides and nucleotides (11,12). Each snake venom is different the researchers observed that the venom varied in different species according to the age of the snake and the climate in which they lived (13). Cytotoxicity of various compounds of snake venom causes changes in cellular metabolism which leads to several effects on cancer cells (14). Gue et al. studied the cytotoxins from Chinese cobra venom in rabbits (15). Zhang et al. isolated 98 KD proteins containing two subunits from Agkistrodon acutusl snake venom that proteins could induces apoptosis (16). Gomes et al. isolated cardiotoxic killer protein from cobra venom. They used ion exchange chromatography and Hplc (17). Sumitra et al. observed that phospholipase A2 from Indian cobra venom inhibitis cancer cells (18). Lafnoune et al. studied the effect of cobra venom on Hepatocellular carcinoma (19). Humans, Have been thinking of making medicine from natural sources (20). The purpose of this investigation isolated proteins or peptide from Iranian cobra venom which has a high lethality of glioblastoma cancer cells.
  • Methods: At the first we lyophilized cobra venom (21). The prepare venom, we mixed 50 mg of venom with 300 µl of water inside a microtube and determined the concentration by the BCA method (22). Then we did SDS-PAGE an assay to determine the molecular weight of the proteins (23). To separate the venom of the cobra, we did FPLC (24). All fractions were lyophilized and concentration was determined BCA. The molecular weight of the protein determined SDS-PAGE. Then the cell culture of U87MG cell line was done and using the MTT test. The protein with the highest lethality of brain cancer was obtained
  • Results: Based on the results, it was observed that fraction 2 up to concentration 5 µg/µl had a more lethal effect than other fractions, so it can be concluded that fraction 2 has the ability to kill brain cancer cells by 99%.
  • Conclusion: Glioblastoma is a lethal and heterogeneous tumor (26). The survival rate of the affected person is only 5% for more than 5 years (27). Today many pharmacists use the venom of poisonous animals to make medicine (28). Snake venom has compounds that cause apoptosis (29,30). The first study was conducted by Bragance and et al on the effect of Naja Naja snake venom on sarcoma cancer cells (31,32). In 1997, Ahn and et al examined cobra venom on stomach cancer cell line and observed that cancer cells were destroyed by 74% (33). But in our research , brain cancer cells were destroyed by 99%. In this research we were able to find a fraction that kills 99% of brain cells. We also hope that using this fraction a drug or a method to deal with glioblastoma cancer.
  • Keywords: Brain cancer, Cobra venom, Chromatography, MTT assay, Cell culture.