Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep;58(8):679-692.
doi: 10.1007/s11626-022-00714-6. Epub 2022 Aug 10.

Strongylopus grayii tadpole blastema extract exerts cytotoxic effects on embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma cells

Vincent Harrison #  1 , Saif F Khan #  2 , Victoria Damerell #  2 , Jenna Bleloch  2 , K N ArulJothi  2   3 , Musalula Sinkala  4 , Katie Lennard  4 , Nicola Mulder  4 , Bridget Calder  4 , Jonathan Blackburn  4 , Sharon Prince  5
Affiliations

Strongylopus grayii tadpole blastema extract exerts cytotoxic effects on embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma cells

Vincent Harrison et al. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Anim. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Amphibians have regenerative capacity and are resistant to developing cancer. This suggests that the developing blastema, located at the tissue regeneration site, may secrete anti-cancer factors. Here, we investigate the anti-cancer potential of tadpole tail blastema extracts (TAD) from the stream frog, Strongylopus grayii, in embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) cells. ERMS originates in skeletal muscle tissue and is a common pediatric soft tissue sarcoma. We show using MTT assays that TAD inhibited ERMS cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner, and phase contrast/fluorescent microscopy revealed that it induced morphological markers of senescence and apoptosis. Western blotting showed that this was associated with DNA damage (γH2AX) and activation of the p38/MAPK stress signaling pathway as well as molecular markers of senescence (p16INK4a), apoptosis (cleaved PARP), and inhibition of cell cycle promoters (cyclin A, CDK2, and cyclin B1). Furthermore, proteomics followed by gene ontology analyses showed that TAD treatment inhibited known tumor promoters and proteins required for cancer cell survival. Lastly, using the LINCS drug perturbation library, we show that there is an overlap between the proteomics signature induced by TAD and common anti-cancer drugs. Taken together, this study provides novel evidence that TAD exhibits cytotoxicity in ERMS cells.

Keywords: Cytotoxicity; Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma; Programmed cell death; Tadpole blastema; Tissue regeneration.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Allegrucci C, Rushton MD, Dixon JE et al (2011) Epigenetic reprogramming of breast cancer cells with oocyte extracts. Mol Cancer 10:7. https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-4598-10-7 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Bleloch JS, du Toit A, Gibhard L et al (2019) The palladacycle complex AJ-5 induces apoptotic cell death while reducing autophagic flux in rhabdomyosarcoma cells. Cell Death Discov 5:60. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41420-019-0139-9 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Dagher R, Helman L (1999) Rhabdomyosarcoma: an overview. Oncologist 4:34–44 - DOI
    1. Ewald JA, Desotelle JA, Wilding G, Jarrard DF (2010) Therapy-induced senescence in cancer. JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst 102:1536–1546. https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djq364 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fior J (2014) Salamander regeneration as a model for developing novel regenerative and anticancer therapies. J Cancer 5:715–719. https://doi.org/10.7150/jca.9971 - DOI - PubMed - PMC

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources