Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the anticancer potential and cytotoxicity of some freshwater cyanobacterial extracts on Human Colon Carcinoma (HT29), Rat Brain Glioma (C6), Human Cervix Carcinoma (HeLa), Human Lung Carcinoma (A549), Human Breast Adenocarcinoma (MCF7), Human Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma (Hep3B) cancerous cells, African Green Monkey Kidney cells (Vero), and Human Amnion cells (FL).Methods: Chroococus minutus, Geitlerinema carotinosum, Nostoc linckia and Anabaena oryzae were collected from different freshwater habitats and identified. Each cyanobacterium was extracted with methanol. Antiproliferative activities of the cyanobacterial extracts were evaluated by [3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] (MTT) using HT29, C6, HeLa, A549, MCF7, Hep3B, Vero, and FL cell lines. Cytotoxicity was determined by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay.Results: The cyanobacterial extracts showed varying antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects on cancer cells. G. carotinosum and N. linckia had significant inhibitory effect on C6 cell lines with half-maximal inhibitory (IC50) levels of 112.69 and 121.48 μg/mL, respectively. TGI values for G. carotinosum and N. linckia were 65.07 and 70.61 μg/mL, respectively. LC50 values for these two cyanobacteria were 386.64 and 760.55 μg/mL, respectively. In addition, cyanobacterium A. oryzae displayed excellent antiproliferative effect on MCF7 cancer cells (GI50 = 2.04 μg/mL). The extracts displayed the cytostatic effect on the cell lines.Conclusion: G. carotinosum, N. linckia and A. oryzae exhibit significant activity on various cancer cells. Hence these cyanobacteria may offer promise as anticancer agents.Keywords: Freshwater cyanobacteria, Anticancer, Cytotoxicity, Chroococus minutus, Geitlerinema carotinosum, Nostoc linckia, Anabaena oryzae
Highlights
Cyanobacteria, known as cyanoprokaryotes or blue-green bacteria, and gram negative prokaryotes are some of the oldest living forms in the world, dating back to 3.7 billion years [1, 2]
The cyanobacteria have significant activities arising from production of some bioactive secondary metabolites [3]
It was reported that water extracts of Nostoc muscorum and Oscillatoria sp. showed high anticancer activity against Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma cell and Human Hepatocellular (HepG2) cells [8]
Summary
Cyanobacteria, known as cyanoprokaryotes or blue-green bacteria, and gram negative prokaryotes are some of the oldest living forms in the world, dating back to 3.7 billion years [1, 2]. Rise of cancer incidence and limitations of existing drugs make it desirable to develop new anticancer molecules from various sources including freshwater cyanobacteria [7]. Anticancer properties of freshwater cyanobacteria species (Chroococcus minutus, Geitlerinema carotinosum, Nostoc linckia, Anabaena oryzae) were investigated on HeLa, HT29, A549, MCF7, Hep3B, C6 cancer cells and FL, Vero cells. MTT test was used to evaluate the effects of extracts on cell proliferation [13]. After exposing cancer cells to the extracts for 24 h, MTT test was performed. Cyanobacteria were centrifuged and dried at 60 °C. where A is the absorbance of the extracts and B absorbance of untreated cells. GI50 (50 of % Growth inhibition), TGI50 (Total growth inhibition) and LC50 (50% of drug causing cell kill) parameters were calculated for the extracts using Eqs 2 and 3. The data were analyzed by oneway ANOVA using SPSS software (version 21.0)
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