A review on Persian Gulf brown algae as potential source for anticancer drugs

Abstract

Cancer remains one of the most formidable challenges in modern medicine, and its global impact on human health underscores the urgency for advancing treatment methods. Despite the significant progress in understanding the complex biology of cancer and the development of different therapeutic approaches, the search for new anticancer agents for cancer treatment is very important. Marine organisms are a valuable source for the development of new agents for clinical application. Brown algae, a group of marine macroalgae abundant in the Persian Gulf, have emerged as a promising source of bioactive compounds with potent anticancer properties. This comprehensive review provides an overview of the current advances regarding the anti-cancer activity of the Persian Gulf brown algae as a valuable reservoir of anticancer agents. Among marine organisms, algae are a large and diverse group of organisms from which a wide range of secondary metabolites have been isolated. This review shows the active components of the Persian Gulf brown algae along with their antitumor potential for cancer treatment according to their structure. It also describes and discusses various extraction techniques and compound modification methods. The species of Sargassum seaweed is the most researched for anticancer properties in the Persian Gulf. The results of various studies in this study show that Persian Gulf brown algae extracts and fractions have different cytotoxic effects on various types of cancer cell lines. These organisms have the ability to produce compounds with promising properties that can be used in the biomedicine field. These compounds have shown antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties, which can be useful for medicinal chemists in the development of effective anti-cancer drugs.