Anticancer potential of toxin extracts from vital organs of milk spotted puffer fish Chelonodon patoca on human cancer cell lines

Abstract

Among aquatic creatures, fish are the most diversified organisms that have emerged among other vertebrates. The objective of this research was to evaluate the anticancer properties of toxin extracts from the marine puffer fish Chelonodon patoca. The toxins were extracted from the samples by homogenizing with acetic acid, and the clear supernatant was subjected to anticancer activities by MTT for cytotoxicity and cell viability on both Vero and cancer cell lines (A-549, AGS, HT-29, and MDA-MB-231). More than 70% of the normal cells were viable up to 200 µg/ml of toxin extracts so that hence the concentration was fixed below 200 µg/ml for the cell viability study on human cancer cells. Among the various organs, the toxin extracted from the liver showed potential antiproliferative activity at an inhibitory concentration of 50 µg/ml on HT-29 and MDA-MB231cell lines, 75 µg/ml on A549 and 100 µg/ml on AGS. The cellular and nuclear morphological changes, induction of apoptosis, and its stages were observed microscopically through different staining methods. Further, the DNA damage was confirmed by DNA fragmentation analysis to confirm apoptosis. The results suggest that the extract of toxin (liver) shows a significant antiproliferative effect on the human cancer cell lines.

Keywords:

• Chelonodon patoca
• MTT
• Apoptosis
• Toxin
• Human cancer cell lines

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge NCCS Pune for providing the cell lines. The authors also acknowledge the infrastructure support provided by the department established under the DST-FIST program and also thank the University of Madras for awarding the Dr. Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi Endowment Scholarship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.