Antibacterial, Anticancer and Neuroprotective Activities of Rare Actinobacteria from Mangrove Forest Soils.

Mangrove is a complex ecosystem that contains diverse microbial communities, including rare actinobacteria with great potential to produce bioactive compounds. To date, bioactive compounds extracted from mangrove rare actinobacteria have demonstrated diverse biological activities. The discovery of three novel rare actinobacteria by polyphasic approach, namely MUSC 115, MUSC 117 and MUSC 78 from mangrove soils at Tanjung Lumpur, Peninsular Malaysia have led to the screening on antibacterial, anticancer and neuroprotective activities. A total of ten different panels of bacteria such as Methicillin-resistant (MRSA) ATCC 43300, ATCC 70069, NRBC 112582 and others were selected for antibacterial screening. Three different neuroprotective models (hypoxia, oxidative stress, dementia) were done using SHSY5Y neuronal cells while two human cancer cells lines, namely human colon cancer cell lines (HT-29) and human cervical carcinoma cell lines (Ca Ski) were utilized for anticancer activity. The result revealed that all extracts exhibited bacteriostatic effects on the bacteria tested. On the other hand, the neuroprotective studies demonstrated MUSC 115 extract exhibited significant neuroprotective properties in oxidative stress and dementia model while the extract of strain MUSC 78 was able to protect the SHSY5Y neuronal cells in hypoxia model. Furthermore, the extracts of MUSC 115 and MUSC 78 exhibited anticancer effect against Ca Ski cell line. The chemical analysis of the extracts through GC-MS revealed that the majority of the compounds present in all extracts are heterocyclic organic compound that could explain for the observed bioactivities. Therefore, the results obtained in this study suggested that rare actinobacteria discovered from mangrove environment could be potential sources of antibacterial, anticancer and neuroprotective agents.