Metallo-protease Peptidase M84 from Bacillus altitudinis induces ROS dependent apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells by targeting PAR-1

In pursuit of isolating novel anticancer proteases from environmental microbial isolates, we have purified and identified an extracellular metallo-protease from Bacillus altitudinis named Peptidase M84. This protease selectively triggered apoptosis in human ovarian adenocarcinoma cells (PA-1, SKOV3) and mouse ovarian carcinoma cells (ID8), in addition to exhibiting no significant effect on normal human epithelial ovarian cell (IOSE) and mouse peritoneal macrophage (PEM[FE]) cell viabilities. Protease activated receptor-1 (PAR-1); a GPCR which is reported to be overexpressed in ovarian cancer cells was identified as a novel target of Peptidase M84. We observed that Peptidase M84 induced PAR-1 overexpression along with activating its downstream signalling effectors NF{kappa}B and MAPK to promote excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in ovarian cancer cells. This disrupted mitochondrial membrane potential, allowed cytosolic release of mitochondrial cytochrome c, increased the Bax (pro-apoptotic) to Bcl-2 (anti-apoptotic) ratio and promoted DNA damage to evoke apoptotic death of the ovarian cancer cells. Peptidase M84 also reduced nuclear ki-67 expression in these malignant cells to render an anti-proliferative role. In in vivo set-up, weekly intraperitoneal administration of Peptidase M84 (12 {micro}g/kg body-weight) in the ID8 mice model significantly diminished ascitic fluid accumulation through induction of oxidative stress, increasing murine survival rates by 60%. Collectively, our in vitro and in vivo findings suggested that Peptidase M84 triggered PAR-1 mediated oxidative stress to act as an apoptosis inducer in ovarian cancer cells. This established Peptidase M84 as a promising drug candidate for receptor mediated targeted-therapy of ovarian cancer. Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=158 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/556500v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (51K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@6b0a19org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1640510org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1888b49org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1708114_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG