Anticancer effects of fucoxanthin and fucoxanthinol on colorectal cancer cell lines and colorectal cancer tissues

Abstract

Abstract. Colorectal cancer is one of the most malignant neoplasms worldwide. Fucoxanthin is a carotenoid present in the chloroplasts of brown seaweeds. In the present study, the anticancer effects of fucoxanthin and its metabolite, fucoxanthinol, on 6 colorectal cancer cell lines and 20 tissue samples from surgically resected clinical colorectal cancer specimens were examined using a collagen-gel droplet embedded culture drug sensitivity test (CD-DST). The in vitro sensitivity to fucoxanthin, fucoxanthinol and the anticancer drugs is expressed as T/C (%), where T is the absorbance of cells which stained by neutral red treated with carotenoids and C is the absorbance of non-staining cells. Fucoxanthin and fucoxanthinol decreased the T/C (%) of Caco-2, WiDr, HCT116, and DLD-1 cell lines at doses of 20 µM. Fucoxanthinol also decreased the T/C (%) of SW620 cells, while the T/C (%) of Colo205 cells was not reduced by treatment with either carotenoid. Specifically, the T/C (%) of Caco-2 and WiDr cells, which were incubated in carotenoid-free medium for 6 days following treatment with 20 µM fucoxanthinol for 24 h, was markedly decreased to 1.4±0.2 and 12.0±0.3%, respectively. Furthermore, fucoxanthin and fucoxanthinol decreased the T/C (%) in colorectal cancer tissue samples. Notably, 20 µM fucoxanthinol treatment resulted in a higher proportion of colorectal cancer samples with a T/C (%) of <50% (13/20, 65%) compared with samples treated with 20 µM fucoxanthin (2/20, 10%). The median T/C (%) value of 35.1% for the 20 cancers specimens treated with 20 µM fucoxanthinol was lower than the median T/C (%) values of 86.3% and 75.8% for those treated with fluorouracil and paclitaxel, respectively. These results suggested that fucoxanthin and fucoxanthinol may be of use as chemotherapeutic agents in colorectal cancer.

Marine natural products

“…537 The rst asymmetric synthesis of (À)-dolastatrienol (14-hydroxydolasta-1(15),7,9-triene) 538 was reported 539 along with a concise synthesis of dictyodendrins A and F. 540 Additionally, there were many papers and reviews dealing with the biological properties of brown algal polyphenolics [541][542][543][544][545][546][547][548][549][550][551][552][553][554][555][556][557] and carotenoids. 15,[558][559][560][561][562] 6 Red algae…”

Glycine and succinic acid are effective indicators of the suppression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition by fucoxanthinol in colorectal cancer stem-like cells

“…Thus, FxOH is an important indicator of Fx function and may be a promising candidate for human cancer chemoprevention. FxOH significantly attenuated the proliferation of cancer cells derived and cultured from human CRC tissue (20). However, despite the strong anticancer effects of FxOH, its underlying mechanisms are not well known.…”

Therapeutic Application of Diverse Marine-derived Natural Products in Cancer Therapy

“…Another study has confirmed that fucoxanthin and fucoxanthinol have anticancer effects in colorectal cancer (26). The treatment with the two compounds induced an increase in dose dependent drug sensitivity, inhibited cancer cell growth, and induced apoptosis in colorectal cancer (26). Other study has indicated that fucoxanthinol reduaced cell viability of breast cancer cells via modulation of the NF-kappa B pathway.…”

“…The NMR analysis of fucoxanthin following degradation via ozonolysis showed that fucoxanthin divides into two types of cyclohexyl derivatives, and the treatment of degraded fucoxanthin induced antiproliferative effects in colon cancer (25). Another study has confirmed that fucoxanthin and fucoxanthinol have anticancer effects in colorectal cancer (26). The treatment with the two compounds induced an increase in dose dependent drug sensitivity, inhibited cancer cell growth, and induced apoptosis in colorectal cancer (26).…”