Purified Brominated Indole Derivatives from Dicathais orbita Induce Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest in Colorectal Cancer Cell Lines

Marine Drugs

Babak Esmaeelian²  Kirsten Benkendorff¹  Martin R. Johnston³ 

[1] Marine Ecology Research Centre, School of Environment, Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, GPO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia; E-Mail:;School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia; E-Mail:;Flinders Centre for Nanoscale Science and Technology, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia; E-Mail:

关键词: colorectal cancer;    apoptosis;    marine mollusc;    brominated indoles;   

DOI  :  10.3390/md11103802

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Dicathais orbita is a large Australian marine gastropod known to produce bioactive compounds with anticancer properties. In this research, we used bioassay guided fractionation from the egg mass extract of D. orbita using flash column chromatography and identified fractions containing tyrindoleninone and 6-bromoisatin as the most active against colon cancer cells HT29 and Caco-2. Liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LCMS) and ¹H NMR were used to characterize the purity and chemical composition of the isolated compounds. An MTT assay was used to determine effects on cell viability. Necrosis and apoptosis induction using caspase/LDH assay and flow cytometry (PI/Annexin-V) and cell cycle analysis were also investigated. Our results show that semi-purified 6-bromoisatin had the highest anti-cancer activity by inhibiting cell viability (IC₅₀ = ~100 µM) and increasing caspase 3/7 activity in both of the cell lines at low concentration. The fraction containing 6-bromoisatin induced 77.6% apoptosis and arrested 25.7% of the cells in G2/M phase of cell cycle in HT29 cells. Tyrindoleninone was less potent but significantly decreased the viability of HT29 cells at IC₅₀ = 390 µM and induced apoptosis at 195 µM by increasing caspase 3/7 activity in these cells. This research will facilitate the development of these molluscan natural products as novel complementary medicines for colorectal cancer.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.