Abstract
BackgroundCancer represents a serious threat for human health with high social and economic impacts worldwide. Therefore, the development of new anticancer drugs is of most importance. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antitumor potential of twelve algae from Portugal coast on an in vitro model of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG-2 cells).ResultsBoth extracts of Asparagopsis armata (1000 µg/ml; 24 h) presented high cytotoxicity with 11.22 ± 2.98 and 1.51 ± 0.38 % of HepG-2 live cells, respectively. Sphaerococcus coronopifolius methanolic and dichloromethane extracts (1000 µg/ml) also generated high reduction on HepG-2 viability (14.04 ± 2.62 and 12.84 ± 3.82 % of HepG-2 live cells, respectively). The most potent anti-proliferative activity was induced by dichloromethane extract (1000 µg/ml; 24 h) of Sphaerococcus coronopifolius, Asparagopsis armata and Plocamium cartilagineum with 99.61 ± 0.27, 98.56 ± 0.81 and 85.13 ± 1.04 % of cell’s proliferation reduction, respectively. Sphaerococcus coronopifolius dichloromethane extract exhibited the highest potency both on cytotoxicity and anti-proliferation assays with an IC50 of 14.1 and 32.3 μg/ml, respectively.ConclusionsSphaerococcus coronopifolius is a promising source of new molecules with possible application on cancer therapeutics.
Highlights
Cancer represents a serious threat for human health with high social and economic impacts worldwide
It is widely accepted that marine natural products provide unusual and unique chemical structures upon which molecular modelling and chemical synthesis of new drugs can be based with greater efficacy and specificity for the treatment of many human diseases (Ebada et al 2010; Jha and Zi-rong 2004; Stonik 2009)
Regarding to the methanolic extract, A. armata presented similar results to those obtained in the MTT method, S. coronopifolius and F. spiralis presented much less activity in the reduction of cell viability
Summary
Cancer represents a serious threat for human health with high social and economic impacts worldwide. Algae have arisen as an emerging interest in the biomedical area and recent trends in macro-algae natural drug research are revealing the biomedical potential of these organisms in human diseases treatment They are producers of bioactive substances, which show different biological activities, such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiviral, anthelmintic, anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant, antituberculosis, antiviral and antitumor (Chew et al 2008; Mayer et al 2009; Murray et al 2013; Pinteus et al 2015; Ye et al 2008). Different groups of bioactive molecules with antitumor activity have been isolated from algae, such as sulfated polysaccharides, phenolic compounds, carotenoids and terpenoids Such compounds have showed anti-proliferative activity in human cancer cell lines in vitro, as well as inhibitive activity in tumours growing in animal models (Kuo et al 2011; Kwon et al 2007; Lins et al 2009; Thoppil and Bishayee 2011; Zandi et al 2010). The aim of this study was to evaluate the antitumor potential of twelve algae from Peniche coast (Portugal) on an in vitro carcinoma model of human hepatocellular cancer (HepG-2 cells)
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