Cecropin Suppresses Human HCC BEL-7402 Cell Growth and Survival in Vivo without Side-Toxicity

Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most deathleading visceral neoplasms worldwide (Sener et al., 2005; Somboon et al., 2014). The most widely used agent against hepatocellular carcinoma is doxorubicin, either as a single agent or in combination with other chemotherapeutics like cisplatin (Giglia et al., 2010). However, this conventional chemotherapy has shown various side effects, for example hepatotoxicity (Injac et al., 2008; Fatemeh et al., 2013) and hematotoxicity (Sostelly et al., 2013), which complicates safe administration of systemic therapy. The cecropins, first isolated by Boman et al. from the Hyatophora cecropia pupae (Steiner et al., 1981), are a family of antimicrobial peptides. To date, three antimicrobial peptides, cecropin, defensin, and attacin, have been isolated from M.domestica (Liang et al., 2006). Many studies have indicated the antitumor activity of cecropins against various cancer cell lines, including bladder cancer cells (Suttmann et al., 2008), colon cancer cells (Moore et al., 1994) and gastric carcinoma cells (Chan et al., 1998). Our previous study has also shown that cecropin can inhibit the proliferation and promotes the apoptosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma BEL7402 cells (Jin XB et al., 2010). Besides, we also find that cecropin inhibits adhesion and migration of BEL7402 cells (Jin XB et al., 2013). Specifically, other and our studies also indicate that cecropin exerts no damage to human normal cells, which would make it a potential candidate for the development of anti-tumor agents (Jin