Application

Cycloheximide is used in molecular biology for ribosome profiling / translational profiling to understand the complexity of the initiation of translation. Cycloheximide can also be used to determine the half-life of proteins, and select for CHX-resistant strains of yeast/fungi.

Cancer Applications

Pretreatment with cycloheximide followed by estrogen stimulation prevented the estrogen-induced changes in glucose metabolism in perfused breast cancer T47D clone 11 cells. This suggested that the estrogen stimulation requires synthesis of mRNA and protein (Neeman and Degani, 1989). In studying the “immune escape” of cancer cells, in human colorectal cancer cell line COLO 205 is normally resistant to TNF-alpha - a death inducing ligand. However, co-incubation TNF-alpha with cycloheximide caused time-dependent cell death. In fact, authors found that Cycloheximide sensitizes cells to TNF-alpha-induced apoptosis (Pajak et al, 2005).

Electrophoresis Applications

Cycloheximide is widely used in biomedical research to inhibit protein synthesis in eukaryotic cells studied in vitro. It inhibits the synthesis of proteins and macromolecules,and affects apoptosis in eukaryotes.

Microbiology Applications

Media Supplements

Cycoloheximide is routinely used as a selection agent in several types of isolation media:

Columbia Blood Agar - Campylobacter selective supplement (Butzler)

Dermasel agar - Selective supplement for dermatophyte fungi

Campylobacter Agar - Campylobacter Selective Supplement (Preston)

Listeria Selective Agar - Listeria Selective Supplement

Listeria Enrichemnt Broth - Listeria Selective Enrichment Supplement

Listeria Enrichment Broth - Modified Listeria Selective Enrichemnt Supplement

STAA Agar - STAA Selective Supplement

Legionella CYE Agar - Legionella GVPC Selective Supplement

Campylobacter Agar - Campylobacter Selective Supplement (Karmali)

Bolton Broth - Bolton Broth Selective Supplement

Plant Biology Applications

Cycloheximide is a commonly used lab reagent used in in vitro applications to inhibit fungal growth by targeting protein synthesis. In yeast, concentrations of 200 uM have fungicidal effects (Schneider-Poetsch et al, 2009). The compound can be used as a plant growth regulator to stimulate ethylene production in leaves and fruit.

Form

Powder

Appearance

White or cream-colored powder

Source

Streptomyces Griseus

Potency (on a dry basis)

≥900 u/mg (on dried basis)

Melting Point

107-120°C

Loss on Drying

≤1.0%

References

Baliga BS, Pronczuk AW and Munro HN (1969) Mechanism of cycloheximide inhibition of protein synthesis in a cell-free system prepared from rat liver. J Biol Chem. 244(16):4480-4489 PMID 5806588

Doyle SM, Diamond M and McCabe PF (2010) Chloroplast and reactive oxygen species involvement in apoptotic-like programmed cell death in Arabidopsis suspension cultures. J. Exper. Bot 61 (2):473–482 PMID 19933317

Lee S et al (2012) Global mapping of translation initiation sites in mammalian cells at single-nucleotide resolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 109(37):E2424-32 PMID 22927429

Neeman M and Degani H (1989) Early estrogen-induced metabolic changes and their inhibition by actinomycin D and cycloheximide in human breast cancer cells: 31P and 13C NMR studies. PNAS 86 (14):5585-5589 PMID 2748604

Pajak B, Gajkowska B, Orzechowski A (2005) Cycloheximide-mediated sensitization to TNF-alpha-induced apoptosis in human colorectal cancer cell line COLO 205; role of FLIP and metabolic inhibitors. J. Physiol. Pharmacol.56 (3)101-118. PMID 16077198

Schneider-Poetsch T et al (2009) Inhibition of eukaryotic translation elongation by cycloheximide and lactimidomycin. Nat. Chem. Biol 6: 209-217 PMID 20118940

Available Documents

• SDS
• Product Data Sheet
• Susceptibility and Resistance Data