Antiproliferative Activity of Violaxanthin Isolated from Bioguided Fractionation of Dunaliella tertiolecta Extracts

Type Article
Date 2011-05
Language English
Author(s) Pasquet Virginie1, Morisset Perrine1, Ihammouine Said1, Chepied Amandine1, Aumailley Lucie1, Berard Jean-BaptisteORCID2, Serive Benoit2, Kaas Raymond2, Lanneluc Isabelle1, Thiery Valerie1, Lafferriere Mathieu1, Piot Jean-Marie1, Patrice Thierry3, Cadoret Jean-Paul2, Picot Laurent1
Affiliation(s) 1 : Univ La Rochelle, UMR CNRS LIENSs 6250, F-17042 La Rochelle, France
2 : IFREMER Ctr Nantes, IFREMER Lab PBA, F-44311 Nantes, France
3 : CHU Nantes, Dept LASER, F-44093 Nantes, France
Source Marine Drugs (1660-3397) (Mdpi Ag), 2011-05 , Vol. 9 , N. 5 , P. 819-831
DOI 10.3390/md9050819
WOS© Times Cited 73
Keyword(s) pigments, microalgae, Dunaliella, violaxanthin, carotenoid, cancer, apoptosis
Abstract Dunaliella tertiolecta (DT) was chemically investigated to isolate molecules inhibiting cancer cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis in vitro. The potency to inhibit cell growth was used for the bio-guided fractionation and isolation of active compounds using chromatographic techniques. The DT dichloromethane extract exhibited a strong anti-proliferative activity on MCF-7 and LNCaP cells, and was further fractionated and sub-fractionated by RP-HPLC. High resolution mass spectrometry and spectrophotometric analysis unequivocally identified violaxanthin as the most antiproliferative molecule present in DT DCM extract. Violaxanthin purified from DT induced MCF-7 dose- dependent growth inhibition in continuous and discontinuous treatments, at concentrations as low as 0.1 mu g.mL(-1) (0.17 mu M). Phosphatidylserine exposure, typical of early apoptosis, was observed after 48 h treatment at 8 mu g.mL(-1) (13.3 mu M) but no DNA fragmentation, characteristic of late apoptosis steps, could be detected even after 72 h treatment at 40 mu g.mL(-1) (66.7 mu M). Taken together, our results demonstrate the strong antiproliferative activity of violaxanthin on one human mammary cancer cell line, and suggest that studying the pharmacology of violaxanthin and pharmacomodulated derivatives on cancer cells may allow potent antiproliferative drugs to be obtained.
Full Text
File Pages Size Access
Publisher's official version 13 433 KB Open access
Top of the page

How to cite 

Pasquet Virginie, Morisset Perrine, Ihammouine Said, Chepied Amandine, Aumailley Lucie, Berard Jean-Baptiste, Serive Benoit, Kaas Raymond, Lanneluc Isabelle, Thiery Valerie, Lafferriere Mathieu, Piot Jean-Marie, Patrice Thierry, Cadoret Jean-Paul, Picot Laurent (2011). Antiproliferative Activity of Violaxanthin Isolated from Bioguided Fractionation of Dunaliella tertiolecta Extracts. Marine Drugs, 9(5), 819-831. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.3390/md9050819 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00040/15142/