Anticancer natural products from Aspergillus neoniger, an endophyte of Ficus carica

Abstract

Abstract Background Several plants have not been investigated for their endophytes, such as the medicinal plant Ficus carica for which anticancer activity has been confirmed. The endophyte Aspergillus neoniger was selected for investigation of its metabolites since it exerted anticancer activities in preliminary screening assays. Results Bioactivity-guided chromatographic fractionation was performed on the endophytic extract and resulted in the identification of asperazine and asperazine A through spectroscopic analysis. Moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa cell lines (CC50 = 18.4 µg mL−1) and moderate antiproliferative effects against HUVEC and K-562 cell lines (GI50 = 31.5 and 24.8 µg mL−1, respectively) were observed for asperazine. Asperazine A on the other hand showed weak cytotoxic activity against HeLa cell lines (CC50 = 34.6 µg mL−1) as well as weak cytostatic activities against HUVEC and K-562 cell lines (GI50 = 40.7 and 50.2 µg mL−1, respectively) while no antimicrobial activity was detected for both compounds. Conclusions These results suggest contribution of A. neoniger to the reported anticancer activity of the host plant and provides a new source of anticancer metabolites with therapeutic potential.

Keywords

• Asperazine
• Asperazine A
• Aspergillus neoniger
• Ficus carica
• Endophyte