Bioprospection of Antiviral and Antitumor Compounds from Some Marine Algae from Egyptian Shores

Abstract

Background: The marine algae are considered a diverse source of bioactive compounds. Many active compounds have been isolated from algae and show good biological activities.

Materials and methods: The aim of this study is to detect the antiviral and anticancer activities in some extracts of marine algae. Extraction, purification and identification of some marine algae common in Egypt were conducted. Extraction of Ulva lactuca, Sargassum dentifolium, and Cystoseiara myrica was conducted. A sequence of extractions, including extraction by ethanol, boiling water, hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide were carried out. The obtained extracts were evaluated for their antitumour and antiviral activities against liver tumour cells, brain tumour cell lines, measles virus, mumps virus and hepatitis B virus (HBV). The extracts of the best activities were subjected for purification by size exclusion chromatography and anion exchange chromatography for ethanolic extracts or precipitation by cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) then by size exclusion chromatography and anion exchange chromatography for aqueous extracts. Separation by GLS/MS was performed. The structures of the active compounds have been identified through different chemical analyses, including sugar analysis, configurational analysis, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), infrared spectroscopy (IR), Gas-Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GLC-MS) and 1H,13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) at ZV.

Results: The active compounds from the water extracts have been identified mainly as polysaccharides and sulphated polysaccharides. The antitumour and the antiviral activities of ethanolic extracts are attributable to compound identified as Ethyl Palmitate. These natural compounds did not show cytotoxic effect.

Conclusion: These outputs could be preliminary for further biological studies aiming to therapeutic application.

Keywords: Marine algae; algal extraction; antitumour; antiviral; polysaccharides; sulphated polysaccharides.