Antimicrobial and antitumoral activities of saturated fatty acid solutions

Abstract

Fatty acids are widely applied in pharmaceutical and cosmetic fabrications. Here, six saturated fatty acids including caprylic acid, capric acid, lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid, and stearic acid were tested for the antimicrobial and antitumoral activities. The test for antimicrobial activities of these compound was performed against Staphylococcus aureus DMST 6532, S. aureus ATCC 4330 and S. aureus ATCC 25923, Escherichia coli ATCC 8739 and Candida albicans ATCC 17100 using agar cup diffusion method. The cell viability of each fatty acids was accessed using WST-1 assay against colorectal cancer, HCT116, and liver hepatocellular carcinoma, HepG2 and 1321N1 astrocytoma cell line. The low molecular weight fatty acid such as caprylic acid exhibited higher antibacterial activities whereas the long chains had no or very little on antimicrobial activity. Short-chain fatty acids also exerted more efficient activity against Candida albicans. For the anti-tumoral activity, the results showed the viability promotion of cancer cells at the low concentration of fatty acids tested because most of cancer cells might gain the benefit from the saturated fatty acids as its nutrient and promoted the cell growth and their viability. The cytotoxic of fatty acids was detected at the higher concentration. However, the cytotoxicity potential of the fatty acids relied on concentrations of saturated fatty acid and also type of cell lines tested. These obtained antimicrobial and antitumoral characteristics depending on chain length of these saturated fatty acids are beneficial data for designing drug delivery systems using them as the adjunct components for promoting therapeutic action of main incorporated active compound.