Enhanced Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Potentials of Lipopolysaccharides-Injected Musca domestica Larvae

Islam El-Garawani; Hesham El-Seedi; Shaden Khalifa; Islam H El Azab; Marwa Abouhendia; Shaymaa Mahmoud

doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics12111111

Enhanced Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Potentials of Lipopolysaccharides-Injected Musca domestica Larvae

Pharmaceutics. 2020 Nov 19;12(11):1111. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics12111111.

Authors

Islam El-Garawani¹, Hesham El-Seedi^{2

3

4}, Shaden Khalifa², Islam H El Azab^{5

6}, Marwa Abouhendia¹, Shaymaa Mahmoud¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Menoufia 32511, Egypt.
² Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Menoufia 32511, Egypt.
⁴ International Research Center for Food Nutrition and Safety, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
⁵ Chemistry Department, College of Science, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ On Leave from Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Aswan University, Aswan, P.O. Box 81528, Aswan 81528, Egypt.

Abstract

The usage of insects as a sustainable and functional natural products resource is a new promise in complementary and alternative medicine. The present study aimed to investigate the ability of Musca domestica (housefly) larval hemolymph (insect blood) to display the enhanced in vitro antioxidant and cytotoxic effects. The oxidative stress (OS) was elicited by inducing lipopolysaccharides (LPS) treatment as an exogenous stressor. Determination of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and mRNA and protein expressions of SOD1, was investigated as confirmatory markers of oxidative stress induction. Cytotoxicity on cancerous MCF-7 and normal Vero cells were also evaluated using an MTT assay at 24 h post-injection. The injection of LPS induced a significant (p < 0.05) increase in SOD, GSH and TAC, whereas, the MDA was diminished. Hemolymph was collected from normal and treated larvae after 6, 12 and 24 h. The M. domestica superoxide dismutase (MdSOD1) transcripts were significantly (p < 0.05) upregulated 6 and 12 h post-treatment, while a significant downregulation was observed after 24 h. Western blot analysis showed that MdSOD1 was expressed in the hemolymph of the treated larvae with an increase of 1.2 folds at 6 and 12 h and 1.6 folds at 24 h relative to the control group. LPS-treated larval hemolymphs exhibited significant cytotoxicity with respect to the untreated ones against MCF-7 while Vero cells showed no cytotoxicity for both hemolymphs. The DPPH free radical scavenging activity was examined and a significant antioxidant potential potency was observed at 6 h (50% maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀): 63.3 ± 3.51 µg/mL) when compared to the control M. domestica larval hemolymph (IC₅₀: 611.7 ± 10.41 µg/mL). Taken together, M. domestica larval hemolymph exhibited enhanced antioxidant and consequently increased cytotoxic capacities under stressed conditions.

Keywords: M. domestica larva; antioxidant; cytotoxicity; glutathione; hemolymph; lipopolysaccharides; malondialdehyde; superoxide dismutase 1.

Grants and funding

05885/Swedish Research Council Vetenskapsrådet (05885), Sweden for financial support and the Department of Molecular Biosciences, Wenner-Grens Institute, Stockholm University, Sweden.