Toxins (Aug 2017)

The Natural Fungal Metabolite Beauvericin Exerts Anticancer Activity In Vivo: A Pre-Clinical Pilot Study

  • Daniela Heilos,
  • Yelko Rodríguez-Carrasco,
  • Bernhard Englinger,
  • Gerald Timelthaler,
  • Sushilla van Schoonhoven,
  • Michael Sulyok,
  • Simon Boecker,
  • Roderich D. Süssmuth,
  • Petra Heffeter,
  • Rosa Lemmens-Gruber,
  • Rita Dornetshuber-Fleiss,
  • Walter Berger

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins9090258
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 9
p. 258

Abstract

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Recently, in vitro anti-cancer properties of beauvericin, a fungal metabolite were shown in various cancer cell lines. In this study, we assessed the specificity of this effect by comparing beauvericin cytotoxicity in malignant versus non-malignant cells. Moreover, we tested in vivo anticancer effects of beauvericin by treating BALB/c and CB-17/SCID mice bearing murine CT-26 or human KB-3-1-grafted tumors, respectively. Tumor size and weight were measured and histological sections were evaluated by Ki-67 and H/E staining as well as TdT-mediated-dUTP-nick-end (TUNEL) labeling. Beauvericin levels were determined in various tissues and body fluids by LC-MS/MS. In addition to a more pronounced activity against malignant cells, we detected decreased tumor volumes and weights in beauvericin-treated mice compared to controls in both the allo- and the xenograft model without any adverse effects. No significant differences were detected concerning percentages of proliferating and mitotic cells in tumor sections from treated and untreated mice. However, a significant increase of necrotic areas within whole tumor sections of beauvericin-treated mice was found in both models corresponding to an enhanced number of TUNEL-positive, i.e., apoptotic, cells. Furthermore, moderate beauvericin accumulation was detected in tumor tissues. In conclusion, we suggest beauvericin as a promising novel natural compound for anticancer therapy.

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