Suh Sung-Suk, Yang Eun Jin, Lee Sung Gu, Youn Ui Joung, Han Se Jong, Kim Il-Chan, Kim Sanghee
Division of Polar Life Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, 21990, Republic of Korea.
Department of Polar Ocean Environment, Korea Polar Research Institution, Incheon, 21990, Republic of Korea.
Int J Med Sci. 2017 Apr 28;14(6):560-569. doi: 10.7150/ijms.18702. eCollection 2017.
Cancer is the principal cause of human death and occurs through highly complex processes that involve the multiple coordinated mechanisms of tumorigenesis. A number of studies have indicated that the microalgae extracts showed anticancer activity in a variety of human cancer cells and can provide a new insight in the development of novel anti-cancer therapy. Here, in order to investigate molecular mechanisms of anticancer activity in the Antarctic freshwater microalga, sp., we prepared ethanol extract of sp. (ETCH) and performed several assays using human normal keratinocyte (HaCaT) and different types of cancer cells including cervical, melanoma, and breast cancer cells (HeLa, A375 and Hs578T, respectively). We revealed that ETCH had the antioxidant capacity, and caused significant cell growth inhibition and apoptosis of cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner, whereas it showed no anti-proliferation to normal cells. In addition, ETCH had a significant inhibitory effect on cell invasion without the cytotoxic effect. Furthermore, ETCH-induced apoptosis was mediated by increase in pro-apoptotic proteins including cleaved caspase-3 and p53, and by decrease in anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2 in ETCH-treated cancer cells. Taken together, this work firstly explored the antioxidant and anticancer activities of an Antarctic freshwater microalga, and ETCH could be a potential therapeutic candidate in the treatment of human cancer.
癌症是人类死亡的主要原因，其发生过程高度复杂，涉及肿瘤发生的多种协调机制。多项研究表明，微藻提取物在多种人类癌细胞中显示出抗癌活性，并可为新型抗癌疗法的开发提供新的见解。在此，为了研究南极淡水微藻抗癌活性的分子机制，我们制备了微藻的乙醇提取物（ETCH），并使用人类正常角质形成细胞（HaCaT）以及包括宫颈癌细胞、黑色素瘤细胞和乳腺癌细胞（分别为HeLa、A375和Hs578T）在内的不同类型癌细胞进行了多项实验。我们发现ETCH具有抗氧化能力，并以剂量依赖的方式导致癌细胞显著的细胞生长抑制和凋亡，而对正常细胞没有抗增殖作用。此外，ETCH对细胞侵袭具有显著的抑制作用，且无细胞毒性作用。此外，ETCH诱导的凋亡是通过增加包括裂解的半胱天冬酶-3和p53在内的促凋亡蛋白以及降低ETCH处理的癌细胞中的抗凋亡蛋白Bcl-2来介导的。综上所述，这项工作首次探索了南极淡水微藻的抗氧化和抗癌活性，并且ETCH可能是治疗人类癌症的潜在候选药物。
