Peptide name : Melittin

Source/Organism : Honey bee

Linear/Cyclic : Not found

Chirality : Not found

Peptide length: 26

C-terminal modification: Not found

N-terminal modification : Not found

Non-natural peptide information: None

Assay type : Live/Dead staining and florescence microscopy assay

Assay time : 4h

Activity : MIC : 10 μg/mL

Cell line : COLO205

Cancer type : Human adenocarcinoma

Other activity : Not found

Amino acid composition bar chart :

Molecular mass : 2847.4471 Dalton

Aliphatic index : 1.35

Instability index : 44.7308

Hydrophobicity (GRAVY) : 0.2731

Isoelectric point : 12

Charge (pH 7) : 4.7571

Aromaticity : 0.038

Molar extinction coefficient (cysteine, cystine): (5500, 5500)

Hydrophobic/hydrophilic ratio : 1.6

hydrophobic moment : 0.1665

Missing amino acid : C,H,M,E,F,D,Y,N

Most occurring amino acid : L

Most occurring amino acid frequency : 4

Least occurring amino acid : P

Least occurring amino acid frequency : 1

Secondary structure fraction (Helix, Turn, Sheet): (0.3, 0.1, 0.4)

SMILES Notation: CC[C@H](C)[C@H](NC(=O)CN)C(=O)NCC(=O)N[C@@H](C)C(=O)N[C@H](C(=O)N[C@@H](CC(C)C)C(=O)N[C@@H](CCCCN)C(=O)N[C@H](C(=O)N[C@@H](CC(C)C)C(=O)N[C@H](C(=O)N[C@H](C(=O)NCC(=O)N[C@@H](CC(C)C)C(=O)N1CCC[C@H]1C(=O)N[C@@H](C)C(=O)N[C@@H](CC(C)C)C(=O)N[C@H](C(=O)N[C@@H](CO)C(=O)N[C@@H](Cc1c[nH]c2ccccc12)C(=O)N[C@H](C(=O)N[C@@H](CCCCN)C(=O)N[C@@H](CCCNC(=N)N)C(=O)N[C@@H](CCCCN)C(=O)N[C@@H](CCCNC(=N)N)C(=O)N[C@@H](CCC(N)=O)C(=O)N[C@@H](CCC(N)=O)C(=O)O)[C@@H](C)CC)[C@@H](C)CC)[C@@H](C)O)[C@@H](C)O)C(C)C)C(C)C

1 : Soliman C, et al. The membrane effects of melittin on gastric and colorectal cancer. PLoS One. 2019; 14:e0224028. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224028

Paper title : The membrane effects of melittin on gastric and colorectal cancer.

Doi : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224028

Abstract : The cytotoxic effects of melittin, a bee-venom peptide, have been widely studied towards cancer cells. Typically, these studies have examined the effect of melittin over extended-time courses (6-24 hours), meaning that immediate cellular interactions have been overlooked. In this work, we demonstrate the rapid effects of melittin on both gastric and colorectal cancer, specifically AGS, COLO205 and HCT-15 cell lines, over a period of 15 minutes. Melittin exhibited a dose dependent effect at 4 hours of treatment, with complete cellular death occurring at the highest dose of 20 μg/mL. Interestingly, when observed at shorter time points, melittin induced cellular changes within seconds; membrane damage was observed as swelling, breakage or blebbing. High-resolution imaging revealed treated cells to be compromised, showing clear change in cellular morphology. After 1 minute of melittin treatment, membrane changes were observed, and intracellular material could be seen expelled from the cells. Overall, these results enhance our understanding of the fast acting anti-cancer effects of melittin.