Anticancer Potentials of Peptides of Coelomic Fluid of Earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae

Production of compounds of Pharmacological importance from earthworms is a novel area that has gained importance in many of the South East Asian countries in modern day medicine termed as vermiceuticals. Earthworms were maintained in plastic tubs containing decomposed organic matter that served as substrate and their feed. Cancer cell were cultured according to standard cells culture method. The cancer cells were treated with different concentrations of proteins from coelomic fluid of Eudrilus eugeniae to study the concentration effect on cytotoxicity using MTT assay. The result revealed that the coelomic fluid of Eudrilus eugeniae induced cell death in 48hrs and the activity was concentration dependent. In the present study Cytotoxic effect of coelomic fluid from Eudrilus eugeniae was studied on HeLa cell, Colon cancer cells, WBC malignant tumor cells and Brain tumor cells. This confirms the presence of cytotoxic molecules in the coelomic fluid of earthworms. This work suggests that some of the coelomic fluid components might be useful for pharmaceutical applications in the treatment of cancer.