Colorectal cancer accounted for the third most common cancer in the world. The search for new drug candidates that can be used for colorectal cancer treatment from marine-derived fungi, Emericella sp. The present study was performed to isolate the cytotoxic compound from Emericella sp. The isolation method was carried out by using a combination of chromatographic techniques to afford compound 1. The cytotoxic activity and the exosome production property were determined by using proliferation and luciferase assay against HT29 CD63 Nluc cells, respectively. The chemical structure of compound 1 was identified as cordycepin based on spectroscopy methods such as mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (1D and 2D NMR) analyses and comparison with authentic spectral data. The biological activity assay showed that cordycepin exhibited cytotoxic activity with an IC50 value of 92.05 µM through proliferation assay, and also inhibited the exosome production by luciferase assay with an IC50 value of 86.47 µM. Cordycepin was isolated from culture broth Emericella sp., exhibiting moderate cytotoxic activity and inhibitory activity of exosome production. Thus, cordycepin is a potential compound to be investigated further for its exosome production inhibition activity for further use as an anticancer lead compound.
Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Cordycepin; Cytotoxic activity; Emericella sp.; Exosome production.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.