Crude venom of Pseudocerastes persicus snake: From the antibacterial to anticancer effects

Antibiotic resistance has been reported as one of the world's most critical public health problems. Recent investigations have demonstrated that the venom of some species of snakes has antimicrobial and anticancer activities. The purpose of this study was to examine the antibacterial activity of Persian horned viper venom toward Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and also investigate antitumor effects of concentrations of venom with higher antibacterial activity in a human hepatocellular liver carcinoma cell line (HepG2) to evaluate the potential use of its components as antimicrobial and anticancer agents. Bactericidal activity of crude venom in concentrations of 6.25-400 mu g/ml was performed using MTT reduction, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), agar well diffusion, and disc diffusion methods. Tetracycline (50 mu g/ml) was used as a standard antibiotic. Cytotoxic effect in HepG2 cells was measured by MTT reduction assay and confirmed with neutral uptake assay following exposure of cells with different concentrations of venom (50-400 mu g/ml). The apoptotic effect was investigated using the comet assay. Our findings demonstrated that venom displays higher inhibitory effects against Gram-positive bacteria as compared to Gramnegative. Furthermore, venom showed anticancer activity on the HepG2 cell line through induction of apoptosis and necrosis. The results of this study confirmed that the venom of Persian horned viper induces antibacterial and anticancer effects. These properties make the venom of this viper a potential source for isolation of effective molecule(s) having antibacterial and antitumor activity.