Anticancer Compounds Derived from Marine Diatoms

Abstract

<jats:p>Cancer is the main cause of death worldwide, so the discovery of new and effective therapeutic agents must be urgently addressed. Diatoms are rich in minerals and secondary metabolites such as saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, esters, acyl lipids, sterols, proteins, and flavonoids. These bioactive compounds have been reported as potent anti-cancer, anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial agents. Diatoms are unicellular photosynthetic organisms, which are important in the biogeochemical circulation of silica, nitrogen, and carbon, attributable to their short growth-cycle and high yield. The biosilica of diatoms is potentially effective as a carrier for targeted drug delivery in cancer therapy due to its high surface area, nano-porosity, bio-compatibility, and bio-degradability. In vivo studies have shown no significant symptoms of tissue damage in animal models, suggesting the suitability of a diatoms-based system as a safe nanocarrier in nano-medicine applications. This review presents an overview of diatoms’ microalgae possessing anti-cancer activities and the potential role of the diatoms and biosilica in the delivery of anticancer drugs. Diatoms-based antibodies and vitamin B12 as drug carriers are also elaborated.</jats:p>

Mechanistic Insight into Apoptotic Induction in Human Rhabdomyosarcoma and Breast Adenocarcinoma Cells by Chnoospora minima: A Sri Lankan Brown Seaweed

“…Abd Aziz et al [30] and Pacheco et al [31] confirmed that fatty acids extracted from macroalgae could suppress the growth of MCF-7 cancer cells. Similar results were demonstrated previously by Hussain et al [32] with Phaeodactylum tricornutum. These results are comparable with the potent cytotoxicity exerted by the hexane fraction of C. minima against human RMS and MCF-7 cells in the present study, which may be due to the non-polar structure of cytotoxic compounds.…”

Promising Antiproliferative Compound From the Green Microalga Dunaliella tertiolecta Against Human Cancer Cells

“…An HPLC-UV_HRMS dereplication step of the bioactive fractions was performed and, as a result, glycerol 1-(9Z,12Z,15Zoctadecatrienoate) 2-(4Z,7Z,10Z,13Z-hexadecatetraenoate)-3-Oβ-D-galactopyranoside (1) and a compound most likely to be the pigment crocoxanthin were identified in fraction E, while compound 1 was the only component of fraction D. The identity of compound 1 was confirmed by its biological source, UV absorbance, retention time, NMR spectra, HRMS and MS/MS data. This is the first time 1 is tested against cancer cells, even if a pool of related MGDGs have already been tested for its antiproliferative activity (Maeda et al, 2010;Hussein and Abdullah, 2020). The antiproliferative of the compound 1 was determined against the A2058 melanoma cell line.…”

Advanced Pharmacological Uses of Marine Algae as an Anti-Diabetic Therapy

“…The brown seaweeds belonged to the genus "Sargassum" as reported to exhibit the potent inhibitory activity of PTP 1B enzyme due to the presence of secondary bioactive compounds. Ali et al [51] reported that the hexane fraction (IC 50 : 1.83 μg/ml) of Sargassum serratifolium strongly inhibited the PTP 1B enzyme than the standard ursolic acid (IC 50 : 1.12 μg/ml). During the compound isolation, three plastoquinones (sargachromenol, sargahydroquinoic acid, and sargaquinoic acid) were identified, and among them, sargahydroquinoic acid exhibited a potent PTP 1B…”