Novel extracts from Callyspongia siphonella and Negombata magnifica sponges from the Red Sea, induced antiproliferative and proapoptotic activity in HepG-2, MCF-7, and Caco-2 cancer cell lines

Abstract

Marine organisms derived extracts have been shown to exert multiple anti-cancer activities. Two marine sponge species; finger-sponge “Negombata magnifica (Nm)” and tube-sponge “Callyspongia siphonella (Cs)” were collected during summer 2020 from the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea, Egypt). Each sponge macerated with methylene chloride (CH2Cl2), ethyl acetate (C4H8O2), acetone (C3H6O), and chloroform (CHCl₃) separately into four different crude extracts for each sponge species and eight extracts as a total for both marine species, where each extract was in vitro assessed for its antiproliferative and proapoptotic activity in HepG-2, MCF7, and Caco-2 cancer cell lines. Cs-CH2Cl2, Cs-C4H8O2, Cs-C3H6O, Cs-CHCl3, Nm-CH2Cl2, Nm-C4H8O2, Nm-C3H6O, and Nm-CHCl3, each in a dose-dependent manner inhibited the growth of HepG2 cancer cells within IC50 values 17.53, 11.18, 9.97, 19.21, 9.14, 10.94, 8.78, and 7.23 μg/ml, respectively, MCF-7 cancer cells within IC50 values of 19.48, 15.34, 11.76, 13.62, 7.65, 6.18, 11.82, and 8.26 μg/ml, respectively, and Caco-2 cancer cells within IC50 values of 10.17, 14.87, 18.35, 17.12, 12.67, 9.27, 8.37, and 10.68 μg/ml, respectively. In addition, all extracts were found to induce apoptosis in HepG2, MCF-7, and Caco-2 cancer cells via an increase of proapoptotic protein Bax and caspase-3 and decrease of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2. Current data introducing multiple extracts from two marine sponges as promising sources for cancer therapeutic agent(s) to be further developed for cancer control outcome.