Scolopendrasin II

Previously, we performed de novo RNA sequencing of Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans using high-throughput sequencing technology and identified several antimicrobial peptide candidates. Among them, a cationic antimicrobial peptide, scolopendrasin VII, was selected based on its physicochemical properties, such as length, charge, and isoelectric point. Here, we assessed the anticancer activities of scolopendrasin VII against U937 and Jurkat leukemia cell lines. The results showed that scolopendrasin VII decreased the viability of the leukemia cells in MTS assays. Furthermore, flow cytometric analysis and acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining revealed that scolopendrasin VII induced necrosis in the leukemia cells. Scolopendrasin VII-induced necrosis was mediated by specific interaction with phosphatidylserine, which is enriched in the membrane of cancer cells. Taken together, these data indicated that scolopendrasin VII induced necrotic cell death in leukemia cells, probably through interaction with phosphatidylserine. The results provide a useful anticancer peptide candidate and an efficient strategy for new anticancer peptide development.

The centipede Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans is an environmentally beneficial and medically important arthropod species. Although this species is increasingly applied as a reliable source of new antimicrobial peptides, the transcriptome of this species is a prerequisite for more rational selection of antimicrobial peptides. In this report, we isolated total RNA from the whole body of adult centipedes, S. subspinipes mutilans, that were nonimmunized and immunized against Escherichia coli, and we generated a total of 77,063 pooled contigs and singletons using high-throughput sequencing. To screen putative antimicrobial peptides, in silico analyses of the S. subspinipes mutilans transcriptome were performed based on the physicochemical evidence of length, charge, isoelectric point, and in vitro and in vivo aggregation scores together with the existence of continuous antimicrobial peptide stretches. Moreover, we excluded some transcripts that showed similarity with both previously known antimicrobial peptides and the human proteome, had a proteolytic cleavage site, and had downregulated expression compared with the nonimmunized sample. As a result, we selected 17 transcripts and tested their antimicrobial activity with a radial diffusion assay. Among them, ten synthetic peptides experimentally showed antimicrobial activity against microbes and no toxicity to mouse erythrocytes. Our results provide not only a useful set of antimicrobial peptide candidates and an efficient strategy for novel antimicrobial peptide development but also the transcriptome data of a big centipede as a valuable resource.

In a previous study, we analyzed the transcriptome of Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans using next-generation sequencing technology and identified several antimicrobial peptide candidates. One of the peptides, scolopendrasin V, was selected based on the physicochemical properties of antimicrobial peptides using a bioinformatics strategy. In this study, we assessed the antimicrobial activities of scolopendrasin V using the radial diffusion assay and colony count assay. We also investigated the mode of action of scolopendrasin V using flow cytometry. We found that scolopendrasin V's mechanism of action involved binding to the surface of microorganisms via a specific interaction with lipopolysaccharides, lipoteichoic acid, and peptidoglycans, which are components of the bacterial membrane. These results provide a basis for developing peptide antibiotics.