In Vivo And In Vitro Citotoxic Activitity Of Bothropstoxin-I From Bothrops jararacussu Snake Venom On Tumour Cells Lines

^{1Gebrim, L.C.P.C.; 1Menezes, C.S.R.; 1Rodrigues, V.M.; 1Silveira-Lacerda, E.P.S.; 2Soares, A. M.; 1Hamaguchi, A.; 3Nomizo, A. and 1Homsi-Brandeburgo, M.I.}

1 Instituto de Genética e Bioquímica - Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, MG; 2 Unidade de Biotecnologia - Universidade de Ribeirão Preto, SP; 3 Faculdade de Farmácia de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the action of bothropstoxin-I (BthTX-I), a myotoxin isolated from Bothropsjararacussu snake venom and BthTX-I with chemical modification of His by 4-bromophenacyl bromide (BPB) on the inhibition of Sarcoma 180 (S180) growth on BALB/c mice and cytotoxicity in vitro on S180, SKBR-3 adenocarcinoma and Jurkat T tumour cells by using (3-(4,5- dimethylthiazol-2 yl)-2,5diphenyl tetrazolium (MTT) conversion. Mice (n=5) which received perimuscular injection of S180 cells developed a solid tumour that reached a peak at 10 days. The perimuscular administration of BthTX-I or modified BthTX-I in the 5^th day after tumour inoculation promoted 40% reduced of tumour volume and 30% tumour weight in the 14^th day. When BthTX-I or modified BthTX-I was added (at different concentrations) to S180, SKBR-3 and Jurkat cell culture was observed a reduction of cell viability in a concentration dependent manner. This assay showed that 1mg /mL of the BthTX-I produced about 100% cell death on S180, and Jurkat cells, 40% o SKBR-3 cells lines while modified BthTX-I  showed cytotoxity of about 36% on S180, 30% on Jurkat and SKBR-3. Our results show that BthTX-I have tumouricidal activity in the cells lines in models in vivo and  in vitro and the cytotoxic activity of BthTX-I after modification by BPB.

Financial Support: CAPES, CNPq and FAPEMIG.

Correspondence to: lcgebrim@yahoo.com.br