Abstract
BackgroundSeveral plants have not been investigated for their endophytes, such as the medicinal plant Ficus carica for which anticancer activity has been confirmed. The endophyte Aspergillus neoniger was selected for investigation of its metabolites since it exerted anticancer activities in preliminary screening assays.ResultsBioactivity-guided chromatographic fractionation was performed on the endophytic extract and resulted in the identification of asperazine and asperazine A through spectroscopic analysis. Moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa cell lines (CC50 = 18.4 µg mL−1) and moderate antiproliferative effects against HUVEC and K-562 cell lines (GI50 = 31.5 and 24.8 µg mL−1, respectively) were observed for asperazine. Asperazine A on the other hand showed weak cytotoxic activity against HeLa cell lines (CC50 = 34.6 µg mL−1) as well as weak cytostatic activities against HUVEC and K-562 cell lines (GI50 = 40.7 and 50.2 µg mL−1, respectively) while no antimicrobial activity was detected for both compounds.ConclusionsThese results suggest contribution of A. neoniger to the reported anticancer activity of the host plant and provides a new source of anticancer metabolites with therapeutic potential.
Highlights
Several plants have not been investigated for their endophytes, such as the medicinal plant Ficus carica for which anticancer activity has been confirmed
We investigated whether its bioactive endophyte A. neoniger contributes to the plant’s reported antimicrobial and anticancer activities
Isolation of bioactive endophytic secondary metabolites The extract of the strain cultivated in MPG medium showed potent cytotoxic effects against Human immortal cervical cancer cells (HeLa) (CC50 = 6.2 μg mL−1) in addition to antiproliferative effects against K-562 and Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) cell lines (GI50 = 5.9 and 4.8 μg mL−1 respectively)
Summary
Several plants have not been investigated for their endophytes, such as the medicinal plant Ficus carica for which anticancer activity has been confirmed. The endophyte Aspergillus neoniger was selected for investigation of its metabolites since it exerted anticancer activities in preliminary screening assays. They often attack many organisms such as animals, humans, plants, and even other fungi. As saprotrophic fungi they play a vital role in the cycling of nutrients (Verma et al 2009). Ficus carica for which a wide range of biological activities has been
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