Maackia amurensis agglutinin enhances paclitaxel induced cytotoxicity in cultured non-small cell lung cancer cells

•MAA augmented cytotoxicity of the low dose of Paclitaxel in NSCLC cell lines.•MAA enhanced chemopreventive efficacy of the low dose of Paclitaxel in NSCLC cells.•MAA may have the potential to be used as adjuvant chemotherapeutic agent in NSCLC.

Maackia amurensis agglutinin (MAA) is gaining recognition as the potential diagnostic agent for cancer. Previous studies from our laboratory have demonstrated that this lectin could interact specifically with the cells and biopsy samples of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) origin but not with normal lung fibroblast cells. Moreover, this lectin was also found to induce apoptosis in NSCLC cells. Further, the biological activity of this lectin was shown to survive gastrointestinal proteolysis and inhibit malignant cell growth and tumorigenesis in mice model of melanoma thereby indicating the therapeutic potential of this lectin. Paclitaxel is one of the widely used traditional chemotherapeutic drugs for treatment of NSCLC but it exerts side-effects on normal healthy cells too. Studies have revealed that lectins have potential to act as an adjuvant chemotherapeutic agent in cancer of different origin. Thus, in the present study, an attempt was made to assess the chemo-adjuvant role of MAA in three types of NSCLC cell lines [adenocarcinoma cell line (A549), squamous cell carcinoma cell line (NCI-H520) and large cell carcinoma cell line (NCI-H460)]. We have observed that the non-cytotoxic concentration of this lectin was able to enhance the cytotoxic activity of Paclitaxel even at low dose by inducing apoptosis through intrinsic/mitochondrial pathway in all the three types of NSCLC cell lines, although the involvement of extrinsic pathway of apoptosis in case of NCI-H460 cell line could not be ruled out. Further, this lectin was also found to augment the chemo-preventive activity of this drug by arresting cells in G2-M phase of the cell cycle. Collectively, our results have suggested that Maackia amurensis agglutinin may have the potential to be used as adjuvant chemotherapeutic agent in case of NSCLC.