Cytotoxic effect of crude venom isolated from Sea anemone Calliactis tricolor on human cancer cell lines

The present study was made to analyze the antiproliferative effect of crude venom isolated from sea anemone Calliactis tricolor against human cancer cell lines such as Human Neuroblastoma cell (SHSY5Y), Human Lung Cancer cells (A549) and Human Colon Cancer cells (HT-29). The protein profile of venom was performed by Native PAGE and subunit profile was analyzed by SDS-PAGE. The in vitro cytotoxic effect of crude venom against SHSY5Y, A549, HT-29 and Vero cell lines was evaluated by MTT assay method. All the cells exposed to crude venom showed dose-dependent cytotoxic effect with IC50 of 60 mu g/ml for both SHSY5Y and A549 cells and 75 mu g/ml for HT-29 cells compared to with IC50 of 100 mu g/ml for the Vero cell control. The significant decrease in cell viability was observed in SHSY5Y Human Neuroblastoma cells among other cancer cells. The cellular and nuclear morphological observations revealed the loss of cell morphological integrity along with the prominent damage of nucleus in the cell. This was further confirmed by DNA fragmentation assay. Based on the preliminary results, it could be clearly stated that the crude venom of C. tricolor may have a potential anti-cancerous molecules which can be further explored and used as a tool for Neuroblastoma chemotherapy.