The Mucus of Actinia equina (Anthozoa, Cnidaria): An Unexplored Resource for Potential Applicative Purposes

Marine Drugs

Loredana Stabili¹  Roberto Schirosi⁴  Maria Giovanna Parisi²  Stefano Piraino³  Matteo Cammarata² 

[1] Institute for Marine Coastal Environment (Unit of Taranto), National Research Council (IAMC-CNR) Via Roma 3, 74100 Taranto, Italy;Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies (STEBICEF), Università di Palermo, Via Archirafi, 18, 90123 Palermo, Italy; E-Mails:;Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies (DiSTeBA), Università del Salento, Via Prov.le Lecce-Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy; E-Mail:;Lachifarma s.r.l., S.S.16 Zona Industriale, Zollino (Le) 73010, Italy; E-Mail:

关键词: mucus;    Actinia equina;    antibacterial activity;    hemolytic activity;    cytotoxicity;    tumor cell line K562;   

DOI  :  10.3390/md13085276

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The mucus produced by many marine organisms is a complex mixture of proteins and polysaccharides forming a weak watery gel. It is essential for vital processes including locomotion, navigation, structural support, heterotrophic feeding and defence against a multitude of environmental stresses, predators, parasites, and pathogens. In the present study we focused on mucus produced by a benthic cnidarian, the sea anemone Actinia equina (Linnaeus, 1758) for preventing burial by excess sedimentation and for protection. We investigated some of the physico-chemical properties of this matrix such as viscosity, osmolarity, electrical conductivity, protein, carbohydrate, and total lipid contents. Some biological activities such as hemolytic, cytotoxic, and antibacterial lysozyme-like activities were also studied. The A. equina mucus is mainly composed by water (96.2% ± 0.3%), whereas its dry weight is made of 24.2% ± 1.3% proteins and 7.8% ± 0.2% carbohydrates, with the smallest and largest components referable to lipids (0.9%) and inorganic matter (67.1%). The A. equina mucus matrix exhibited hemolytic activity on rabbit erythrocytes, cytotoxic activity against the tumor cell line K562 (human erythromyeloblastoid leukemia) and antibacterial lysozyme-like activity. The findings from this study improve the available information on the mucus composition in invertebrates and have implications for future investigations related to exploitation of A. equina and other sea anemones’ mucus as a source of bioactive compounds of high pharmaceutical and biotechnological interest.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.