| Abstract |
The marine environment is an abundant source of diverse biologically active compounds that demonstrate great potential applications in pharmaceutics and medicine. Although novel biologically active secondary metabolites can be potentially found in bryozoans, there have been a few studies on these organisms. Bryozoans are sessile colonial animals commonly found in great diversity in shallow waters. In this study, samples of the bryozoan Cryptosula zavialovensis Kubanin were collected from Akkeshi, Japan, and were extracted using ethanol. The crude extract was separated using ethyl acetate (EtOAc) and water to obtain organic and aqueous fractions, respectively. In the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, the EtOAc fraction demonstrated cytotoxicity towards MCF7 breast cancer cells. The EtOAc extract was subsequently fractionated through solid-phase extraction using a gradient of methanol and water (E1 80:20 v/v and E2 100:0 v/v) and using methanol and chloroform (E3 50:50 v/v). Toxicity profiling revealed that the toxicity toward the human MCF7 breast cancer cells of the E2 and E3 fractions is comparable to that of cisplatin, indicating the excellent cytotoxic activity of the EtOAc fractions of C. zavialovensis. Further studies are thus warranted to isolate the novel compounds in these fractions and determine their potential chemotherapeutic application. |
