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. 2011;9(6):952-966.
doi: 10.3390/md9060952. Epub 2011 Jun 7.

Antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of heterofucans from the seaweed Sargassum filipendula

Leandro Silva Costa  1   2 , Gabriel Pereira Fidelis  1 , Cinthia Beatrice Silva Telles  1 , Nednaldo Dantas-Santos  1 , Rafael Barros Gomes Camara  1 , Sara Lima Cordeiro  1 , Mariana Santana Santos Pereira Costa  1 , Jailma Almeida-Lima  1 , Raniere Fagundes Melo-Silveira  1 , Ruth Medeiros Oliveira  1 , Ivan Rui Lopes Albuquerque  1 , Giulianna Paiva Viana Andrade  1 , Hugo Alexandre Oliveira Rocha  1
Affiliations

Antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of heterofucans from the seaweed Sargassum filipendula

Leandro Silva Costa et al. Mar Drugs. 2011.

Abstract

Fucan is a term used to denominate a type of polysaccharide which contains substantial percentages of l-fucose and sulfate ester groups. We obtained five heterofucans from Sargassum filipendula by proteolytic digestion followed by sequential acetone precipitation. These heterofucans are composed mainly of fucose, glucose, glucuronic acid, galactose and sulfate. These fucans did not show anticoagulant activity in PT and aPTT tests. Their antioxidant activity was evaluated using the follow tests; total antioxidant capacity, scavenging hydroxyl and superoxide radicals, reducing power and ferrous ion [Fe(II)] chelating. All heterofucans displayed considerable activity, especially SF-1.0v which showed the most significant antioxidant potential with 90.7 ascorbic acid equivalents in a total antioxidant capacity test and similar activity when compared with vitamin C in a reducing power assay. The fucan antiproliferative activity was performed with HeLa, PC3 and HepG2 cells using MTT test. In all tested conditions the heterofucans exhibited a dose-dependent effect. The strongest inhibition was observed in HeLa cells, where SF-1.0 and SF-1.5 exhibited considerable activity with an IC50 value of 15.69 and 13.83 μM, respectively. These results clearly indicate the beneficial effect of S. filipendula polysaccharides as antiproliferative and antioxidant. Further purification steps and additional studies on structural features as well as in vivo experiments are needed to test the viability of their use as therapeutic agents.

Keywords: HeLa cells; biological activities; brown seaweed; fucoidan.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Total antioxidant capacity of sulfated polysaccharides from Sargassum filipendula. Each value is the mean ± SD of five determinations. All the sulfated polysaccharides showed a significant difference (p < 0.05).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Antioxidant activity of sulfated polysaccharides from Sargassum filipendula. (A) Ferric chelating assay; (B) Power reducing assay. Each value is the mean ± SD of five determinations. * The only sulfated polysaccharide to show different sulfated polysaccharides when compared at each concentration. a,b,c,d Different letters indicate a significant difference between sulfated polysaccharides when compared at each concentration.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Influence of sulfated polysaccharides from Sargassum filipendula on cell proliferation inhibition of tumor cells after 24 h incubation. (A) antiproliferative activity in HeLa (Human cervical cancer cell lines); (B) antiproliferative activity in HepG2 (Human hepatocellular carcinom cell lines); (C) antiproliferative activity in PC3 (human prostate cancer cell lines). Each value is the mean ± SD of seven determinations. Different letters indicates a significant difference between concentrations of individual sulfated polysaccharides (p < 0.05). * antiproliferative activity not detected.
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