Discovery of cytotoxic natural products from South African marine sponges
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Date
2018
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
Cancer is a major health problem worldwide and killing millions of people each year. The use
of natural products as chemotherapeutic agents is well established, however, many of the
currently available drugs are associated with undesirable side effects and high toxicity.
Furthermore, the development of drug resistant cancers makes the search for anticancer lead
compounds a priority. In this study a library of prefractionated marine sponge extracts was
established and used to prioritise samples for isolation of bioactive metabolites. From the
generated library, two of the sponges of genera Ircinia sp. and Latrunculid sp. resulted in
isolation of furanosesterterpenes (7E,12Z,20Z,18S-variabilin) and pyrroloiminoquinone
(tsitsikammamine A and tsitsikammamine N-18 oxime) alkaloids respectively. The structures
of these compounds were elucidated by analysis of 1D and 2D NMR data. These compounds
displayed moderate to potent cytotoxicity against MCF-7, PC-3, U-87 and HEK-293 cells lines
through apoptosis, with lack of selectivity for cancer cell lines.
Description
Magister Pharmaceuticae - Mpharm
Keywords
Cancer, marine sponges, Ircinia sp., Latrunculid sp. Pyrroloiminoquinones alkaloids, furanosesterterpenes, cytotoxicity, marine natural product libraries.