Production of Terretonin N and Butyrolactone I by Thermophilic Aspergillus terreus TM8 Promoted Apoptosis and Cell Death in Human Prostate and Ovarian Cancer Cells

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 26; no. 9; p. 2816
• Main Authors: Ghfar, Ayman, El-Metwally, Mohammad, Shaaban, Mohamed, Gabr, Sami, Gabr, Nada, Diab, Marwa, Aqel, Ahmad, Habila, Mohamed, Al-Qahtani, Wahidah, Alfaifi, Mohammad, Elbehairi, Serag, AlJumah, Bayan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 10.05.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma; anticancer activity; Antitumor activity; Apoptosis; Aspergillus terreus; Aspergillus terreus TM8; Biological properties; Biotechnology; Butyrolactone; butyrolactone I; Cell death; Chromatography; Cyclin-dependent kinases; Cytotoxicity; Fungi; Kinases; Medical research; Metabolites; Metastases; Metastasis; Natural products; Ovarian cancer; Ovarian carcinoma; PC-3; Prostate; Prostate cancer; SKOV3; terretonin N; Thermophilic fungi; Tumor cell lines
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules26092816

The anticancer activity of terretonin N (1) and butyrolactone I (2), obtained from the thermophilic fungus Aspergillus terreus TM8, was intensively studied against prostate adenocarcinoma (PC-3) and ovary adenocarcinoma (SKOV3) human cell lines. According to this study, both compounds showed potent cytotoxicity towards ovarian adenocarcinoma cells (SKOV3) with IC50 1.2 and 0.6 μg/mL, respectively. With respect to metastatic prostate cells (PC-3), the two compounds 1 and 2 showed a significantly promising cytotoxicity effect with IC50 of 7.4 and 4.5 μg/mL, respectively. The tested fungal metabolites showed higher rates of early and late apoptosis with little or no necrotic apoptotic pathway in all treated prostate adenocarcinoma (PC-3) and ovary adenocarcinoma (SKOV3) human cell lines, respectively. The results reported in this study confirmed the promising biological properties of terretonin N (1) and butyrolactone I (2) as anticancer agents via the induction of cellular apoptosis. However, further studies are needed to elucidate the molecular mechanism by which cellular apoptosis is induced in cancer cells.