Anti-cancer substance in Pieris brassicae

Abstract

Extracts of the body fluid of Pieris rapae and Pieris brassicae, both common butterflies, are reported to show cytotoxic activity against human gastric carcinoma TMK-1 cells. When TMK-1 cells were treated with an extract from pupae of P. brassicae, the resultant morphological changes in dying cells were similar to those found for pupae of P. rapae. The extract of the former exerted dose-dependent cytotoxicity with the IC50 value against TMK-1 cells at the 1/107 dilution. The cytotoxic substance in the pupae of P. brassicae was found to be heat-labile, precipitated with ammonium sulfate and digested by pronase E and proteinase K. Thus, the anti-cancer principle present in the pupae of P. brassicae is suggested to be a protein, like the pierisin, anti-cancer principle in P. rapae.