Marine Drugs (Apr 2011)

Heterofucan from Sargassum filipendula Induces Apoptosis in HeLa Cells

  • Hugo Alexandre Oliveira Rocha,
  • Edda Lisboa Leite,
  • Ivan Rui Lopes Albuquerque,
  • Raniere Fagundes Melo-Silveira,
  • Jailma Almeida-Lima,
  • Rafael Barros Gomes Camara,
  • Leonardo Thiago Duarte Barreto Nobre,
  • Mariana Santana Santos Pereira Costa,
  • Nednaldo Dantas-Santos,
  • Leandro Silva Costa,
  • Cinthia Beatrice Silva Telles,
  • Ruth Medeiros Oliveira

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/md9040603
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 4
pp. 603 – 614

Abstract

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Fucan is a term used to denominate a family of sulfated polysaccharides rich in sulfated L-fucose. Heterofucan SF-1.5v was extracted from the brown seaweed Sargassum filipendula by proteolytic digestion followed by sequential acetone precipitation. This fucan showed antiproliferative activity on Hela cells and induced apoptosis. However, SF-1.5v was not able to activate caspases. Moreover, SF-1.5v induced glycogen synthase kinase (GSK) activation, but this protein is not involved in the heterofucan SF-1.5v induced apoptosis mechanism. In addition, ERK, p38, p53, pAKT and NFκB were not affected by the presence of SF-1.5v. We determined that SF-1.5v induces apoptosis in HeLa mainly by mitochondrial release of apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) into cytosol. In addition, SF-1.5v decreases the expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and increased expression of apoptogenic protein Bax. These results are significant in that they provide a mechanistic framework for further exploring the use of SF-1.5v as a novel chemotherapeutics against human cervical cancer.

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