HR-LCMS assisted phytochemical screening and an assessment of anticancer activity of Sargassum Squarrossum and Dictyota Dichotoma using in vitro and molecular docking approaches

Abstract

The research in the area of marine bioactives have substantially improved in the last few decades. The identified marine algae namely Sargassum squarrossum and Dictyota dichotoma were subjected to phytochemical profiling using the most sophisticated High-resolution-LCMS, 1H NMR and revealed the presence of many bioactive compounds.In vitro MTT tests on lung and breast cancer cells revealed that the DCM fractions of Sargassum squarrossum and Dictyota dichotoma have anticancer characteristics, and they also demonstrated significant dose-dependant cytotoxicity on tumour cell lines. In MCF7 cells, the IC50 values for Sargassum squarrossum and Dictyota dichotoma were 139.51 µg/ml and 241.89 µg/ml whereas in A549 the cell line, the IC 50 values for the DCM fractions of Sargassum squarrossum and Dictyota dichotoma were 95.37 µg/ml and 92.09 µg/ml, respectively. Sargassum squarrossum shows potent anticancer activity in MCF7 and A549 whereas Dictyota dichotoma has potent anticancer activity in A549 and moderate activity in MCF7 cell lines.The most prevalent enzymes VEGFR-2 and AXL tyrosine kinase, contribute to the development of cancer. A computational method was used to confirm the anticancer effects of the newly identified compounds targeting the above enzymes. According to the molecular docking studies, most of the detected compounds from marine algae were selectively interacting with AXL and VEGFR receptors with good binding affinity scores. The current work demonstrated the phytochemical assessment of marine algae and showed the ability of marine natural products to provide unique metabolites with significant biological activity.