Structural characterization of Mesobuthus martensii Karsch peptides and anti-inflammatory potency evaluation in human vascular endothelial cells

Abstract

Studies have reported that scorpion toxins have excellent anti-cancer effects; however, the antiinflammatory activity of scorpion peptides has rarely been studied. Here, a series of Mesobuthus martensii Karsch peptides (MMKPs) were isolated and the amino acid sequence was identified. The MMKPs mitigated TNF-a-mediated inflammation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). The results showed that MMKP-1 (His-Glu-Gly-His) treatment (43.0 mM) significantly attenuated the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and mitochondrial membrane potential collapse in HUVECs. Moreover, MMKP-1 down-regulated the intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) expressions and blocked the NF-kB pathway to alleviate the damage caused by TNF-a. Of note, our study provides a good reference for the anti-inflammation research on scorpion oligopeptides.

Toxinology in the proteomics era: a review on arachnid venom proteomics

“…Examples are: the anti-hypertensive peptide family in Tityus sp. venoms, named hypotensins [24][25][26]; a cryptic peptide from the hypotensin I (Ts14) is a potential cardioprotective agent [27]; the PnTx2-6 toxin from Phoneutria nigriventer venom that causes priapism [28] was latter redesigned in laboratory as a nontoxic peptide with potential application as an erectile dysfunction treatment [29]; anti-thrombotic and anti-inflammatory peptides [30,31], antimicrobial peptides [32,33], and bio-insecticides [34], etc.…”

Retraction: Structural characterization of ginseng cyclopeptides and detection of capability to induce apoptosis in gastrointestinal cancer cells

“…The Royal Society of Chemistry hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to a significant amount of unattributed text overlap with articles by different author groups that were not cited, including articles published in Scientific Reports by Zhenjian Zhuo et al 1 and RSC Advances by Man Zheng et al 2 …”

“…The Royal Society of Chemistry hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to a signicant amount of unattributed text overlap with articles by different author groups that were not cited, including articles published in Scientic Reports by Zhenjian Zhuo et al 1 and RSC Advances by Man Zheng et al 2 The authors were asked to comment and provide the raw data for this article but did not respond. The considerable amount of unattributed text overlap, and the lack of raw data, undermines the integrity and reliability of the entire article.…”