High-resolution liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (HR-LCMS) assisted phytochemical profiling and an assessment of anticancer activities of Gracilaria foliifera and Turbinaria conoides using in vitro and molecular docking analysis

Abstract

Marine algae’s, owing to diverse range of secondary metabolites, opening up the new avenues in new drug development and can be used efficiently in anticancer research. Two seaweeds Gracilaria foliifera and Turbinaria conoides are subjected to phytochemical investigation by HR-LCMS and NMR which confirms presence of different bioactive compounds. The cytotoxicity of the dichloromethane (DCM) fraction of Gracilaria foliifera and Turbinaria conoides was determined using an in vitro methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) test and showed considerable dose-dependent cytotoxicity on tumour cell lines. In MCF7, Gracilaria foliifera had an IC₅₀ of 100 μg/ml, while Turbinaria conoides had an IC₅₀ of 200 μg/ml and both the DCM fraction had IC₅₀ values of 100 μg/ml in the A549 cell line. MTT assay for anticancer activity suggest that Gracilaria foliifera has potent anticancer activity in both breast and lung cell lines, while the DCM fraction of Turbinaria conoides has potent activity in lung cell lines and moderate activity in breast cell lines. The anticancer effects of the discovered drugs targeting the most prevalent enzymes VEGFR and AXL tyrosine kinases were confirmed using a computational technique. We believe that residues from VEGFR, like Lys868, Asn923, Asp1046, and Phe1047 and Asp690 from Axl kinase may have contributed to the plausible anti-cancer benefit seen in this study.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Keywords:

• HR-LCMS
• seaweeds
• docking studies
• Gracilaria foliifera
• Turbinaria conoides

Acknowledgement

We are pleased to IIT Bombay's Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF) to conduct the HR-LCMS study. We are grateful to Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Solapur University's Instrumentation Center for providing NMR facilities. We are thankful to the Biocyte Institute of Research & Development, Sangli, Maharashtra for in vitro anticancer activity. We show our gratitude to Savitribai Phule Pune University Bioinformatics Centre for molecular docking studies.

Disclosure statement

The authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest. The writers are entirely responsible for the content and writing of this article.

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Funding

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