Antiproliferative activity of carotenoid pigments produced by extremophile bacteria

Abstract

Various microorganisms are able to synthesize pigments, which usually present antioxidant properties. The aim of this work was to evaluate the antiproliferative activity of bacterial pigments against cancer cells Neuro-2a, Saos-2 and MCF-7. Pigments were obtained from Deinococcus sp. UDEC-P1 and Arthrobacter sp. UDEC-A13. Both bacterial strains were isolated from cold environments (Patagonia and Antarctica, respectively). Pigments were purified and analyzed by HPLC. Antiproliferative activity was evaluated by 3-4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium (MTT) assay. Deinoxanthin carotenoid obtained from Deinococcus sp. UDEC-P1 was able to reduce significatively the viability of Saos-2 (37.1%), while no effect was observed against MCF-7 and Neuro-2a. Pigments obtained from Arthrobacter sp. UDEC-A13 showed a significant viability reduction of three tumour cells (20.6% Neuro-2a, 26.3% Saos-2 and 13.2% MCF-7). Therefore, carotenoid pigments produced by extremophilic bacteria Deinococcus sp. UDEC-P1 and Arthrobacter sp. UDEC-A13 could be proposed as novel complementary compounds in anticancer chemotherapy.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Arthrobacter sp.
• decaprenoxanthin
• Deinococcus sp.
• deinoxanthin
• extremophiles

Disclosure statement

Authors declare to have no conflict of interests.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by grant FONDECYT 1151028 and Associative UDEC-VRID grant 214.083.030-1.0. The authors thank Miss Ruth Contreras for technical support.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grant FONDECYT 1151028 and Associative UDEC VRID grant 214.083.030-1.0.