PNC-27 Kills Cervical Cancer Cells but Not Untransformed Cervical Cells, an Effect that is Enhanced by Ketone Bodies.

The anti-cancer peptide, PNC-27, is cytotoxic to cancer cells but has no effect on normal cells and has eradicated tumors in vivo with no off-target effects. We have recently treated three different cervical cancer cell lines with this peptide including two squamous cervical cancers (HTB-35 and SW756) and one endo-cervical cancer (HeLa) and found that it killed all three cell lines with IC₅₀ values among the lowest values that we have found for a wide variety of cancers. On the other hand, PNC-27 had no effect on the viability or growth of PCS-480-011 primary normal cervical epithelial cells. We have recently found that lithium acetoacetate inhibits the proliferation of cancer but not normal cells without exhibiting any cytotoxicity. When administered to cancer cells with chemotherapeutic compounds, this agent causes significant lowering of the IC₅₀ values for the chemotherapeutic compounds. We now find that lithium acetoacetate induces a lowering of the IC₅₀ values of PNC-27 on all three cervical cancer cell lines by 200-300 percent. These results suggest that PNC-27 in acetoacetate solutions can be a powerful antitumor agent.