Bioactivity Screening of Microalgae for Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory, Anticancer, Anti-Diabetes, and Antibacterial Activities

Marte Albrigtsen,Adrianna Ianora,Laura Escalera,Espen Hansen,Kirsti Helland,Kine Ø Hanssen,Francesco Esposito,Chiara Lauritano,Giovanna Romano,Jeanette H Andersen

doi:10.3389/fmars.2016.00068

Marte Albrigtsen, Adrianna Ianora + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00068

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Abstract

Marine microalgae are considered a potentially new and valuable source of biologically active molecules for applications in the food industry as well as in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetic sectors. They can be easily cultured, have short generation times and enable an environmentally-friendly approach to drug discovery by overcoming problems associated with the over-utilization of marine resources and the use of destructive collection practices. In this study, 21 diatoms, 7 dinoflagellates and 4 flagellate species were grown in three different culturing conditions and the corresponding extracts were tested for possible antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, anti-diabetes, antibacterial and anti-biofilm activities. In addition, for two diatoms we also tested two different clones to disclose diversity in clone bioactivity. Six diatom species displayed specific anti-inflammatory, anticancer (blocking human melanoma cell proliferation) and anti-biofilm (against the bacteria Staphylococcus epidermidis) activities whereas, none of the other microalgae were bioactive against the conditions tested for. Furthermore, none of the 6 diatom species tested were toxic on normal human cells. Culturing conditions (i.e. nutrient starvation conditions) greatly influenced bioactivity of the majority of the clones/species tested. This study denotes the potential of diatoms as sources of promising bioactives for the treatment of human pathologies.

Highlights

Cancer, inflammation, and the evolution of antibiotic-resistant pathologies, together with other human diseases, are continuously stimulating the search for new bioactive molecules from natural sources
We evaluated the antioxidant potential of microalgae using two different assays, the Cellular Lipid Peroxidation Antioxidant Activity (CLPAA) and the Cellular Antioxidant Activity (CAA) Assays
Our study is one of the few to simultaneously test a wide range of marine microalgal species using the same protocols for culturing, extraction, and testing on human cancer cell lines and other bioactivity screenings

Summary

Introduction

Inflammation, and the evolution of antibiotic-resistant pathologies, together with other human diseases, are continuously stimulating the search for new bioactive molecules from natural sources. The global marine pharmaceutical pipeline consists of seven approved pharmaceuticals in clinical use, four of which are anticancer drugs, and about 26 natural products in Phase I to Phase III clinical trials, 23 as anticancer agents, two for schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s, and one for chronic pain (http://marinepharmacology.midwestern.edu/clinPipeline.htm). Most of these natural products have been isolated from Porifera (sponges) and Chordata (including ascidians) but these macroorganisms are often difficult to cultivate and there may be problems to obtain a sustainable supply of the compounds of interest without ecologically impacting natural populations. A range of pharmacological activities have been observed from microalgal extracts, the active principles are often unknown (Mimouni et al, 2012; Guedes et al, 2013; Nigjeh et al, 2013; Samarakoon et al, 2013)

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