Abstract
Fucan is a term used to denominate a type of polysaccharide which contains substantial percentages of l-fucose and sulfate ester groups. We obtained five heterofucans from Sargassum filipendula by proteolytic digestion followed by sequential acetone precipitation. These heterofucans are composed mainly of fucose, glucose, glucuronic acid, galactose and sulfate. These fucans did not show anticoagulant activity in PT and aPTT tests. Their antioxidant activity was evaluated using the follow tests; total antioxidant capacity, scavenging hydroxyl and superoxide radicals, reducing power and ferrous ion [Fe(II)] chelating. All heterofucans displayed considerable activity, especially SF-1.0v which showed the most significant antioxidant potential with 90.7 ascorbic acid equivalents in a total antioxidant capacity test and similar activity when compared with vitamin C in a reducing power assay. The fucan antiproliferative activity was performed with HeLa, PC3 and HepG2 cells using MTT test. In all tested conditions the heterofucans exhibited a dose-dependent effect. The strongest inhibition was observed in HeLa cells, where SF-1.0 and SF-1.5 exhibited considerable activity with an IC50 value of 15.69 and 13.83 μM, respectively. These results clearly indicate the beneficial effect of S. filipendula polysaccharides as antiproliferative and antioxidant. Further purification steps and additional studies on structural features as well as in vivo experiments are needed to test the viability of their use as therapeutic agents.
Highlights
Sulfated polysaccharides are a complex group of macromolecules with a wide range of important biological properties
Exceptions were mannose and glucuronic acid, which were not detected in SF-1.5 and SF-2.0v, respectively
SF-0.5v, SF-0.7v, SF1.0v, and SF-1.5v showed higher total antioxidant capacity (TAC) than other fucans such as those purified from Padina tetrastomatica, Turbinaria conoides and Canistrocarpus cervicornis [23]
Summary
Sulfated polysaccharides are a complex group of macromolecules with a wide range of important biological properties. Marine algae are the most important source of non-animal sulfated polysaccharides. These biomolecules are widely studied owing to their broad therapeutic applications such as antithrombotic, anticoagulant, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative compounds [1,2,3,4]. Our group obtained a sulfated polysaccharide-rich extract from Sargassum filipendula, common seaweed along the northeast coast of Brazil. It exhibited antiproliferative and antioxidant activities [2]. Biological activities of purified sulfated polysaccharides from S. filipendula have not been examined. SF-1.5v was selected to determine its possible antiproliferative mechanism in future studies
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