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Cytotoxic activity of ten algae from the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea on human breast cancer cell lines; MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, and T-47D

1, 2, 2★★ Corresponding author

  1. 1Shiraz Institute for Cancer Research, School of Medicine
  2. 2Medicinal Plants Processing Research Center

CORRESPONDENCE

Mahmoodreza Moein

Medicinal Plants Processing Research Center

mrmoein@sums.ac.ir

Volume 7, Issue 2 · pp. 133-137 · 2015 · DOI: 10.4103/0974-8490.150539

ABSTRACT

Seaweeds have proven to be a promising natural source of bioactive metabolites for drug development. This study aimed to monitor the ethanol extract of ten algae from the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, for their in vitro cytotoxic activity on three human breast cancer cell lines. Three human breast cancer cell lines including MDA-MB-231(ER−), MCF-7(ER+), and T-47D (ER+) were treated by different concentrations of total ethanol (90%) algae extracts and the cytotoxic effects were evaluated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Doxorubicin (Ebewe, Austria) was used as a positive control. After 72 h of incubation, the cytotoxic effect of the algae was calculated and presented as 50%-inhibitory concentration (IC50). The results indicated Gracilaria foliifera and Cladophoropsis sp. to be the most active algae in terms of cytotoxic effects on the investigated cancer cell lines. The IC50 values against MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, and T-47D cells were, respectively, 74.89 ± 21.71, 207.81 ± 12.07, and 203.25 ± 30.98 mg/ml for G. foliifera and 66.48 ± 4.96, 150.86 ± 51.56 and >400 mg/ml for Cladophoropsis sp. The rest of the algal extracts were observed not to have significant cytotoxic effects in the concentration range from 6.25 mg/ml to 400 mg/ml. Our data conclusively suggest that G. foliifera and Cladophoropsis sp. may be good candidates for further fractionation to obtain novel anticancer substances. Moreover, stronger cytotoxic effects on estrogen negative breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231(ER−)) in comparison to estrogen positive cells (MCF-7 and T-47D) suggest that the extract of G. foliifera and Cladophoropsis sp. may have an estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor-independent mechanism for their cellular growth inhibition.

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    Erfani, N., Nazemosadat, Z., & Moein, M. (2015). Cytotoxic activity of ten algae from the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea on human breast cancer cell lines; MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, and T-47D. Pharmacognosy Research, 7(2), 133-137. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-8490.150539

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    © 2015 Author(s)

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0