RNA-Seq transcriptome analysis reveals Maackia amurensis leukoagglutinin has antitumor activity in human anaplastic thyroid cancer cells

BACKGROUND: Lectins are carbohydrate-binding molecules that can bind specifically to the sugar residues of glycoconjugates and are found in almost all organisms. Plant lectins subjected to many studies reported exhibiting anti-cancer activity. This study aimed to investigate the possible molecular mechanisms of Maackia amurensis leukoagglutinin II (MAL-II) treated ATCCs. METHODS AND RESULTS: We tested the effects of MAL-II, which is isolated from Amur seeds, on cancerous features of 8505C human anaplastic thyroid cancer cells (ATCCs) on a large scale using RNA-Seq. Transcriptome analysis was performed using Illumina next-generation sequencing technology by using cDNA libraries obtained from total RNA isolates of ATCCs treated with 0.25 µM MAL-II for 24 h. Gene ontology and pathway enrichment analysis were performed for the systematic analysis of gene functions. Moreover, we validated RNA-Seq findings using qPCR. Our results showed that many cancer-related genes such as TENM4, STIM2, SYT12, PIEZO2, ABCG1, SPNS2, ARRB1, and IRX5 were downregulated and many anticancer genes such as HSPA6, G0S2, TNFAIP3, GEM, GADD45G, RND1, SERPINB2, and IL24 were upregulated. Also, pathway enrichment analysis showed that differentially expressed genes were found to be associated with Ras, p53, and apoptosis signaling pathways, which are some important signal transduction pathways in development, proliferation, stem cell control, and carcinogenesis. CONCLUSION: Collectively, our results show that MAL-II treatment reveals significant antitumor activity by changing the expression of many cancer-related genes and implies that MAL-II treatment might be a potential candidate molecule to inhibit the malignancy of human anaplastic thyroid cancer. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11033-022-07759-6.