In-vitro Study of Hottentotta Schach Crude Venom Anticancer Effects on MCF-7 and Vero Cell Lines

Scorpion venoms contain potentially useful pharmacological agents. several studiesdemonstrate that the venoms of some scorpions induce apoptosis and inhibit the growth of cancercells; therefore, they have been investigated for isolating anticancer components. in this study,antitumor effects of hottentotta schach crude venom on mcf-7 (breast cancer cell line) as testgroup and vero (african green monkey kidney normal cell line) as control group were analyzed.cell toxicity was analyzed using mtt and neutral red (nr) uptake assays and apoptosisinduction was analyzed using comet assay and caspase-3 activity. oxidative stress followinghottentotta schach crude venom treatment was analyzed using nitrite oxide (no) determinationassay, reduced glutathione (gsh) and catalase enzyme activity assays. results showed that crudevenom (25-200 μg/ml) induced apoptosis and inhibited the growth of mcf-7 and to a lesserextent in vero cell lines. nitrite oxide concentration increased while glutathione concentrationand catalase enzyme activity were decreased in mcf-7 cells; however, results in vero cellswere reversed completely. it can be concluded that hottentotta schach crude venom disturbs theoxidation and reduction potential in cancer cells and ultimately induce apoptosis. so this venomcan be used as a good source for isolation and designing new anticancer drugs.