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Alcoholic concentrate of microalgal biomass modulates cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and gene expression studied in hepatocellular carcinoma

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Abstract 

In the present study, extracts from three microalgae Chlorella vulgaris (CV), Nannochloropsis oculata (NO), and Thalassiosira weissflogii (TW) have been studied to identify its antiproliferative activity and elucidate its mechanism to induce apoptosis in HepG2 cell lines. The cytotoxicity of these extracts was experimented at 10, 100, 200, 400, 500, and 1000 μg/mL concentrations for 24, 48, and 72 h to calculate the IC50 values for their corresponding treatment. The gene and protein expression were analyzed using real-time qPCR and Western blot analysis for apoptotic and cell cycle markers respectively. The cytotoxicity results of NO were recorded as the lowest during the 48- and 72-h treatment with 357.7 and 242.34 μg/mL respectively compared to CV and TW. NO and TW treatment showed elevated expression of Tp53 and Bax by 5.4 and 3.5 times respectively. NO treatment at both concentrations (400 and 100 μg/mL) increased the expression of cleaved caspase 3 and 8 proteins while CV and TW showed elevated expression of these proteins only at higher concentrations. Therefore, the reports of the present study suggest that these three microalgal extracts induced apoptosis through an extrinsic pathway in HepG2 cells thereby inhibiting cancer cell proliferation and can be a potential anticancer agent for hepatocarcinoma.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Mohamed Sathak Trust, Chennai, for all the help and encouragement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PG & Research Department of Biochemistry, Mohamed Sathak Arts and Science College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Anuradha Venkatraman, Sangeetha Panchatcharam & Bhuvana P

  2. Centre for Ocean Research, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Meivelu Moovendhan & Kumar Chandrasekaran

  3. PG & Research Department of Biotechnology, Mohamed Sathak Arts and Science College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Saranya Ramesh, Ashashalini Albert, Syed Ali Mohamed Yacoob, Yogananth Nagarajan & Saravanan Govidasamy Kuppusamy

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Venkatraman, A., Moovendhan, M., Chandrasekaran, K. et al. Alcoholic concentrate of microalgal biomass modulates cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and gene expression studied in hepatocellular carcinoma. Biomass Conv. Bioref. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-02786-6

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