Evaluation of the Anti-proliferative Effects of Ophiocoma erinaceus Methanol Extract Against Human Cervical Cancer Cells

Background: marine organisms provide appreciable source of novel bioactive compounds with pharmacological potential. there is little information in correlation with anti-cancer activities of brittle star. in the present study, anti-neoplastic efficacy of ophiocoma erinaceus methanol extract against human cervical cancer cells was investigated. methods: the hela cells were cultured and exposed to brittle star methanol extract for 24 and 48 hr. the anti-proliferative properties were examined by mtt assay and the type of cell death induced was evaluated through morphological changes, flow cytometry, annexin kit and caspase assay. to assess the anti-metastatic activity, wound healing assay was conducted and photographs were taken from the scratched areas. further, to understand molecular mechanism of cell apoptosis, the expression of bax was evaluated. results: the morphological analysis and mtt assay exhibited that the brittle star methanol extract can exert dose dependent inhibitory effect on cells viability (ic50, 50 μg/ml). flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy demonstrated increment of sub-g1 peak, early and late apoptosis in hela treated cells. wound healing migration assay showed that brittle star extract has anti-neoplastic efficacy by inhibiting cell migration. caspase assay and rt-pcr analysis revealed that brittle star methanol extract induced caspase dependent apoptosis in hela cells through up-regulation of caspase-3 followed by up-regulation of bax gene which is a hallmark of intrinsic pathway recruitment. conclusion: these results represented further insights into the chemopreventive potential of brittle star as a valuable source of unknown therapeutic agents against human cervical cancer.