Abstract
Marine invertebrates provide a series of natural products with different biological activities. Several of these compounds and their derivatives showed a potent anticancer effect. Tunicates represent an important source of bioactive agents, leading to the isolation of ecteinascidin-743 (ET-743), a compound isolated from the Caribbean sea squirt Ecteinascidia turbinata with a potent cytotoxic activity against a variety of tumours in vitro and in vivo. Current phase II clinical trials against soft tissue sarcomas in Europe and the United States indicate that ET-743 represents a highly promising anticancer agent. Another example is aplidine from the Mediterranean tunicate Aplidium albicans, with a broad spectrum activity against various types of cancers, such as colorectal, lymphoma, thyroid and renal cancers. In the present work, we reported, for the first time, that a partially purified methanolic extract prepared from the ascidian Ciona intestinalis inhibited cell proliferation in human cell lines of different origin, including Caco2, HPB-ALL, U-937 and HL-60 and induced early apoptotic events, such as caspase-3 activation and internucleosomal DNA degradation. We suggest the presence in the Ciona intestinalis extract of bioactive compounds possessing anticancer activity.
Keywords: Invertebrate, tunicate, ascidian, Ciona intestinalis, apoptosis, cytotoxicity
Medicinal Chemistry
Title: Cytotoxic and Apoptogenic Activity of a Methanolic Extract from the Marine Invertebrate Ciona intestinalis on Malignant Cell Lines
Volume: 4 Issue: 2
Author(s): Elisabetta Tosti, Gian Luigi Russo, Gaetano Ciarcia, Emilio Presidente and Rosa Anna Siciliano
Affiliation:
Keywords: Invertebrate, tunicate, ascidian, Ciona intestinalis, apoptosis, cytotoxicity
Abstract: Marine invertebrates provide a series of natural products with different biological activities. Several of these compounds and their derivatives showed a potent anticancer effect. Tunicates represent an important source of bioactive agents, leading to the isolation of ecteinascidin-743 (ET-743), a compound isolated from the Caribbean sea squirt Ecteinascidia turbinata with a potent cytotoxic activity against a variety of tumours in vitro and in vivo. Current phase II clinical trials against soft tissue sarcomas in Europe and the United States indicate that ET-743 represents a highly promising anticancer agent. Another example is aplidine from the Mediterranean tunicate Aplidium albicans, with a broad spectrum activity against various types of cancers, such as colorectal, lymphoma, thyroid and renal cancers. In the present work, we reported, for the first time, that a partially purified methanolic extract prepared from the ascidian Ciona intestinalis inhibited cell proliferation in human cell lines of different origin, including Caco2, HPB-ALL, U-937 and HL-60 and induced early apoptotic events, such as caspase-3 activation and internucleosomal DNA degradation. We suggest the presence in the Ciona intestinalis extract of bioactive compounds possessing anticancer activity.
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Tosti Elisabetta, Russo Luigi Gian, Ciarcia Gaetano, Presidente Emilio and Siciliano Anna Rosa, Cytotoxic and Apoptogenic Activity of a Methanolic Extract from the Marine Invertebrate Ciona intestinalis on Malignant Cell Lines, Medicinal Chemistry 2008; 4 (2) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/157340608783789121
DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/157340608783789121 |
Print ISSN 1573-4064 |
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher |
Online ISSN 1875-6638 |
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