The Cytocidal Spectrum of Bacillus thuringiensis Toxins: From Insects to Human Cancer Cells

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a ubiquitous bacterium in soils, insect cadavers, phylloplane, water, and stored grain, that produces several proteins, each one toxic to different biological targets such as insects, nematodes, mites, protozoa, and mammalian cells. Most Bt toxins identify their particular target through the recognition of specific cell membrane receptors. Cry proteins are the best-known toxins from Bt and a great amount of research has been published. Cry are cytotoxic to insect larvae that affect important crops recognizing specific cell membrane receptors such as cadherin, aminopeptidase-N, and alkaline phosphatase. Furthermore, some Cry toxins such as Cry4A, Cry4B, and Cry11A act synergistically with Cyt toxins against dipteran larvae vectors of human disease. Research developed with Cry proteins revealed that these toxins also could kill human cancer cells through the interaction with specific receptors. Parasporins are a small group of patented toxins that may or may not have insecticidal activity. These proteins could kill a wide variety of mammalian cancer cells by recognizing specific membrane receptors, just like Cry toxins do. Surface layer proteins (SLP), unlike the other proteins produced by Bt, are also produced by most bacteria and archaebacteria. It was recently demonstrated that SLP produced by Bt could interact with membrane receptors of insect and human cancer cells to kill them. Cyt toxins have a structure that is mostly unrelated to Cry toxins; thereby, other mechanisms of action have been reported to them. These toxins affect mainly mosquitoes that are vectors of human diseases like Anopheles spp (malaria), Aedes spp (dengue, zika, and chikungunya), and Culex spp (Nile fever and Rift Valley fever), respectively. In addition to the Cry, Cyt, and parasporins toxins produced during spore formation as inclusion bodies, Bt strains also produce Vip (Vegetative insecticidal toxins) and Sip (Secreted insecticidal proteins) toxins with insecticidal activity during their vegetative growth phase.