DAILAB, DBT-AIST International Center for Translational & Environmental Research (DAICENTER), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST), Tsukuba 305-8565, Japan
Sajal Afzal
DAILAB, DBT-AIST International Center for Translational & Environmental Research (DAICENTER), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST), Tsukuba 305-8565, Japan
Ahmed Elwakeel
DAILAB, DBT-AIST International Center for Translational & Environmental Research (DAICENTER), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST), Tsukuba 305-8565, Japan
Damini Sharma
DAILAB, DBT-AIST International Center for Translational & Environmental Research (DAICENTER), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST), Tsukuba 305-8565, Japan
Navaneethan Radhakrishnan
DAILAB, Department of Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110-016, India
Jaspreet Kaur Dhanjal
DAILAB, DBT-AIST International Center for Translational & Environmental Research (DAICENTER), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST), Tsukuba 305-8565, Japan
Durai Sundar
DAILAB, Department of Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110-016, India
Sunil C. Kaul
DAILAB, DBT-AIST International Center for Translational & Environmental Research (DAICENTER), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST), Tsukuba 305-8565, Japan
Renu Wadhwa
DAILAB, DBT-AIST International Center for Translational & Environmental Research (DAICENTER), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST), Tsukuba 305-8565, Japan
Fucoxanthin is commonly found in marine organisms; however, to date, it has been one of the scarcely explored natural compounds. We investigated its activities in human cancer cell culture-based viability, migration, and molecular assays, and found that it possesses strong anticancer and anti-metastatic activities that work irrespective of the p53 status of cancer cells. In our experiments, fucoxanthin caused the transcriptional suppression of mortalin. Cell phenotype-driven molecular analyses on control and treated cells demonstrated that fucoxanthin caused a decrease in hallmark proteins associated with cell proliferation, survival, and the metastatic spread of cancer cells at doses that were relatively safe to the normal cells. The data suggested that the cancer therapy regimen may benefit from the recruitment of fucoxanthin; hence, it warrants further attention for basic mechanistic studies as well as drug development.