Effect of Sea Cucumber Muscle Hydrolyzed Proteins on the Sodium-Potassium Pump α1 Subunit Gene Expression in the Breast Cancer Cell Line (4T1)

Cancer is one of the most important cause of death in the world. Currently, most research was done on the discovery of natural products by anti-cancer properties in the sea creatures. Many studies have shown that sea cucumber contain bioactive compounds such as anti-cancer and antioxidant properties. Also, numerous studies have shown that ion transporters such as Na+/K+-ATPase, participate in ion transition, metabolism, malignant, progression, transforming of cellular signaling and also its aberrant expression and activity have been reported in several types of cancer. Therefore, this study investigated molecular mechanisms of extracted peptides on the 4T1 cell line, by measuring of α1 subunit mRNA expression changes. 4T1 cells were treated by a concentration of 1.5 mg/ml of the peptide fractions of 30-10, 10-3 kDa for 72 hours. RNA was extracted using TRIzol, and then cDNA was synthesized. The amount of α1 subunit mRNA expression and GAPDH expression measured, by using of quantitative Real-Time PCR. Our results showed that there is not significantly differ between mRNA expressions of a1 subunit of sodium pump in the treated cells by two fractions, but significantly decrease in the gene expression of this subunit observed relative to the control in the both treated groups. Our results finally shows that, peptides obtained from hydrolysis of muscle of sea cucumber (Holothuria sp) could probably impose their cytotoxic effects by altering the expression of mRNA of subunit α1, because this subunit is the catalytic section of sodium pump and have important role in ion exchange directly and nutrient transfer indirectly.