Study On The Nutritional And Anticancer Properties Of Mysore Thorn Borer(Anoplophora Chinensis) And Mealworm Larva(Tenebrio Molitor)

There is an increasing interest in using insects as an alternative nutrient and therapeutic source.Mysore thorn borer?MTB??Anoplophora chinensis?is an important species of insect especially in China.MTB have been used for thousands of years in traditional medicine.On the other hand,mealworm larva?MWL?Tenebrio molitor is one of the most-reared species of insect in the world.MWL has shown to be a promising alternative for conventional food sources,due to its nutritional composition.Both insects are promising source of nutritional and therapeutic compounds.Therefore,this study was carried out to investigate the nutritional value of MTB and MWL,and to determine their anticancer activities.Firstly,the nutritional composition of MTB and MWL was screened out by preliminary test.Amino acid,fatty acid,volatile compounds and element profiles of MTB and MWL were determined.Secondly,the effect of MTB and MWL oil and aqueous extract?AE?on the proliferation of different cell lines was determined.Finally,MWL,which was the species that showed the highest antiproliferative activity and the two most susceptible cell lines in the previous step,were chosen to carry out the mechanistic analyses.Main contributions of this work are as follow:?1?MTB and MWL contained 19 amino acids,including all essential amino acids;it is a good source of hydrophobic and Sulphur-containing amino acids.A total of 16 fatty acids were detected including polyunsaturated fatty acids.Moreover,MTB has a low n-6/n-3 ratio?4.58±0.17?,demonstrating its potential on preventing cardiovascular diseases.The analysis of elements showed that MTB and MWL contained all essential elements without exceeding maximum intakes.These results demonstrate that MTB and MWL might be a potential source of nutritional compounds for human consumption.?2?MTB and MWL oil and AE showed effects against the proliferation of cancer cells.Particularly MWL oil and AE showed significant?P<0.05?higher effects compared to MTB oil and AE.Caco-2 and HepG2 cell lines showed higher susceptibility to MWL oil and AE compared to HeLa cell line.Moreover,the results showed that the proliferation of normal L929cells was not affected when treated with either MTB or MWL.The IC₅₀ values at 48 h for MWL oil and AE on Caco-2 were 0.37%and 0.64%respectively.On HepG2,the IC₅₀ values for MWL oil and AE were 0.98%and 1%,respectively.The antiproliferative effects of MWL oil and AE might be correlated to its fatty acids and free amino acids action.On the other hand,after 48 h of treatment,the IC₅₀0 for MTB oil and AE were higher than 1%,which were higher compared to MWL oil and AE.?3?The antiproliferative cancer cell mechanistic study,i.e.,apoptosis,morphological and biochemical analyses indicated that MWL oil and AE induced apoptosis in Caco-2 and HepG2cancer cells.After 24 h,apoptotic analysis showed that MWL oil induced apoptosis in Caco-2and HepG2 cells increasing from 2.06%to 74.34%and from 0.04%to 39.77%,respectively,as the treatment concentrations increased from 0.5 to 1%.MWL AE induced apoptosis in Caco-2and HepG2 cells from 2.06%to 52.13%and from 0.04%to 21.74%,respectively,as the treatment concentrations increased from 0.5 to 1%.After 48 and 72 h of treatment,percentage of late apoptotic and necrotic cells increased.The mechanisms of apoptosis may be mediated via death receptor pathway by the activation of caspase-8,-9 and-3.These effects may be correlated to its fatty acids and free amino acids.The results of this study demonstrate the potentials of MWL oil and AE in the development of natural anticancer therapeutics in the future.