A lectin with anti-microbial and anti proliferative activities from Lantana camara, a medicinal plant

Lectins are known to possess interesting biological properties such as anti microbial, nematicidal, anti tumor and anti viral activities. Lantana camara from verbenaceae family is a medicinal plant known for possessing anti oxidant and anticancer activities. Since anticancer activity is reported in plant lectins, leaves of Lantana camara was used to check the presence of lectin.

Here we report the purification, characterization and biological properties of a lectin from Lantana camara (LCL) leaves. LCL was purified by ion exchange chromatography on CM-cellulose column followed by affinity chromatography on mucin coupled Sepharose 4B column and gel filtration chromatography on Superdex G75 column. LCL is a glycoprotein with 10% of the carbohydrate and is blood group non specific. SDS-PAGE analysis of affinity purified LCL showed two proteins with apparent molecular weight of 14.49 kDa and 17.4 kDa which were subsequently separated by Gel filtration chromatography on Superdex G75 column. Hapten inhibition studies of LCL revealed its highest affinity for Chitin, Milibiose, α-D-Methyl galactopyranoside and glycoproteins like mucin, asialomucin. LCL showed strong binding to human colon adenocarcinoma HT29 cells with MFI of 242 which was effectively blocked by 68.1 and 62.5% by both mucin and milibiose. LCL showed dose and time dependent growth inhibitory effects on HT29 cells with IC₅₀ of 3.75  μg/ml at 48 h. LCL has potent antibacterial and anti fungal activity.

LCL can be explored for its clinical potential.