research article: cytotoxic activities of padina gymnospora and acanthophora spicifera extracts against human breast cancer cell lines

The resistance of cancerous cells to anti-cancer drugs is one of the most common problems in medicine and therefore, finding new anti-cancer compounds with the least side effects seems to be necessary. the present study was performed to investigate the anti-cancer potential of padina gymnospora and acanthophora spicifera, two native algae species of the persian gulf, in vitro. in this regard, methanol, chloroform, n-hexane, and ethyl acetate extracts of both algae species were added to cultivated mcf-7 cells at different concentrations (125, 250, 500, and 1000 μg/ml). 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (mtt) assay was used to determine the toxicity effects of algae extracts on mcf-7 cells. dna isolation and agarose gel electrophoresis were also performed to assess dna fragmentation induced by these two algae species. based on the mtt results, the sensitivity of cultivated mcf-7 cells to p. gymnospora and a. spicifera extracts was increased in a dose-dependent manner. the highest concentration of methanolic extract of both algae species significantly affected the mcf-7 cells and led to the highest cell death. moreover, the ic50 of p. gymnospora and a. spicifera methanolic extracts for the mcf-7 cells were equal to 557.78 and 910.61 μg/ml, respectively, which indicates p. gymnospora has more cytotoxic activity and anti-tumor potency. the lowest concentration of all types of algae extracts was not considerably cytotoxic to cultivated mcf-7 cells. the dna fragmentation of mcf-7 cells was increased with increasing the concentration of the algal extracts. the highest amount of dna fragmentation caused by 1000 μg/ml of p. gymnospora and a. spicifera extract; however, methanolic extract of p. gymnospora caused more dna fragmentation in mcf-7 cells than a. spicifera.