Anti-glioma properties of DVL, a lectin purified from Dioclea violacea

Abstract

Plant lectins have been studied owing to their structural properties and biological effects that include agglutinating activity, antidepressant-like effect and antitumor property. The results from this work showed the effects of the lectin extracted from the Dioclea violacea plant (DVL) on the C6 rat glioma cell line. DVL treatment was able to induce caspase-3 activation, apoptotic cell death and cellular membrane damage. Furthermore, DVL decreased mitochondrial membrane potential and increased the number of acidic vesicles and cleavage of LC3, indicating activation of autophagic processes. DVL also significantly inhibited cell migration. Compared to ConA, a well-studied lectin extracted from Canavalia ensiformes seeds, some effects of DVL were more potent, including decreasing C6 glioma cell viability and migration ability. Taken together, the results suggest that DVL can induce glioma cell death, autophagy and inhibition of cell migration, displaying potential anti-glioma activity.

Structure-function and application of plant lectins in disease biology and immunity

“…Con A and WGA are also reported to induce intracellular Ca 2+ mobilization in different cell types that is hypothesized to be a mechanism of NLRP3 inflammasome activation (Grinstein et al, 1987;Yatomi et al, 1993). Dioclea violacea (Dvl), a lectin isolated from the Fabaceae family is reported to have anti-inflammatory properties whereby it inhibits neutrophil migration upon inflammation when injected intravenously (Nascimento et al, 2018;Freitas et al, 2015). Freitas et al have reported beneficial effects of Dvl in curing acute kidney injury due to its ability to reduce renal vascular resistance, apoptosis and ROS generation (Freitas et al, 2015).…”

Is Autophagy Involved in the Diverse Effects of Antidepressants?

“…There are also studies that report the anti-proliferative effects of antidepressants in co-occurrence with autophagy induction, which thus do not attempt to establish causality but suggest a functional link. For example, plant lectins extracted from Dioclea violacea display antidepressant-like and antitumor effects and induce autophagy [116]. The antidepressant indatraline was reported to induce autophagy and to inhibit smooth muscle cell proliferation and restenosis in a rat model [117].…”

ConA-Like Lectins: High Similarity Proteins as Models to Study Structure/Biological Activities Relationships

“…Some of these lectins affected mitochondrial membrane potential or cell migration, and all of them induced morphological changes on cells from a polygonal form to a spherical one, followed by reduction of cell adhesion. Staining methods indicated cell death by autophagic, necrotic and apoptotic processes induced by mitochondrial pathways and modulation of metalloproteinases [36,59,60,61]. Table 3 summarizes the antiglioma activities of the lectins cited above.…”