Colicin E3 inhibits rabbit globin synthesis

Bacteriocins as Potential Anticancer Agents

Cancer remains one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide, despite advances in its treatment and detection. The conventional chemotherapeutic agents used for the treatment of cancer have non-specific toxicity toward normal body cells that cause various side effects. Secondly, cancer cells are known to develop chemotherapy resistance in due course of treatment. Thus, the demand for novel anti-cancer agents is increasing day by day. Some of the experimental studies have reported the therapeutic potential of bacteriocins against various types of cancer cell lines. Bacteriocins are ribosomally-synthesized cationic peptides secreted by almost all groups of bacteria. Some bacteriocins have shown selective cytotoxicity toward cancer cells as compared to normal cells. This makes them promising candidates for further investigation and clinical trials. In this review article, we present the overview of the various cancer cell-specific cytotoxic bacteriocins, their mode of action and efficacies.

Colicins and their potential in cancer treatment

Colicins are a family of antibacterial cytotoxins produced by Escherichia coli and released into the environment to reduce competition from other bacterial strains. Colicins kill the target cell by a variety of effects that include depolarisation of the cytoplasmic membrane, a non-specific DNase activity, a highly specific RNase activity or by inhibition of murein synthesis. This review summarises some important findings that implicate colicins as potential anti-tumor agents. Colicins appear to inhibit proliferation of tumor cell lines in a colicin-type--and cell line-dependent fashion and are more toxic to tumor cells than to normal cells within the body. This opens a potential for using bacterial colicins in combating cancer and raises a number of questions concerning the mechanism of action of colicins in targeting tumor cells, their specificity and applicability as anti-tumor therapeutics.

Inhibition of ribosomal subunit association and protein synthesis by oligonucleotides corresponding to defined regions of 18S rRNA and 5S rRNA

Strong complementarity between a conserved sequence near the 3' end of 18S (16S) rRNA of the small ribosomal subunit and a conserved sequence in the 5S rRNA of the large ribosomal subunit supported the suggestion that base-paired interaction between the two RNA molecules could be responsible for the reversible association of ribosomal subunits during protein synthesis. If this were true then oligonucleotides corresponding to defined regions of the 18S and 5S rRNAs should have profound effects on the association of ribosomal subunits and protein synthesis. In this report we show that oligonucleotides, corresponding to a defined region of eukaryotic 18S rRNA, when bound to wheat embryo 60S ribosomal subunits, inhibited association with 40S ribosomal subunits and also inhibited in vitro protein synthesis. Similarly oligonucleotides corresponding to a defined region of 5S rRNA when bound to 40S ribosomal subunits also inhibited the formation of 80S ribosomes and in vitro protein synthesis. The minimum sequences responsible for the inhibition of ribosomal subunit association and in vitro protein synthesis corresponded to the 5' strand of the m2(6)A m2(6)A hairpin structure near the 3' end of 18S rRNA and nucleotides 91-100 of 5S rRNA which are complementary to each other. Sequences at identical positions of Escherichia coli 16S and 5S rRNAs are also complementary to each other.

Colicins--exocellular lethal proteins of Escherichia coli

Colicins are toxic exoproteins produced by bacteria of colicinogenic strains of Escherichia coli and some related species of Enterobacteriaceae, during the growth of their cultures. They inhibit sensitive bacteria of the same family. About 35% E. coli strains appearing in human intestinal tract are colicinogenic. Synthesis of colicins is coded by genes located on Col plasmids. Until now more than 34 types of colicins have been described, 21 of them in greater detail, viz. colicins A, B, D, E1-E9, Ia, Ib, JS, K, M, N, U, 5, 10. In general, their interaction with sensitive bacteria includes three steps: (1) binding of the colicin molecule to a specific receptor in the bacterial outer membrane; (2) its translocation through the cell envelope; and (3) its lethal interaction with the specific molecular target in the cell. The classification of colicins is based on differences in the molecular events of these three steps.

Use of colicin e3 for biological containment of microorganisms

The genetic determinant of the lethal antibiotic colicin E3 was cloned under the control of a tightly regulated promoter in the absence of the gene for its cognate inhibitor. Combination of this killing cassette with a stringent regulatory element provided a substrate-dependent conditional suicide system that was exploited for the biological containment of a Pseudomonas putida strain. The lethality of a single gene copy and the distinct and universal cellular target of the antibiotic suggest colicin E3 as an ideal candidate for combination with other lethal functions to design highly efficient containment systems for microorganisms.

The 3'-terminal primary structure of five eukaryotic 18S rRNAs determined by the direct chemical method of sequencing. The highly conserved sequences include an invariant region complementary to eukaryotic 5S rRNA

The 3'-terminal sequences of 18S rRNA from chicken reticulocyte, mouse sarcoma, rat liver, rabbit reticulocyte and barley embryo were determined by the direct chemical sequencing method. The regions sequenced show complete homology for the first 73 nucleotides. A sequence 5'-proximal to the m6(2)Am6(2)A residues that is complementary to eukaryotic 5S RNAs is totally conserved. This supports the hypothesis that base-paired interaction between 5S and 18S rRNA, which are present in the large and small ribosomal subunits respectively, may be involved in the reversible association of ribosomal subunits during protein synthesis.