Haematococcus pluvialis Microalgae Extract Inhibits Proliferation, Invasion, and Induces Apoptosis in Breast Cancer Cells

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant cancer in females worldwide. Drug resistance, toxicity, and the failure of current therapies to completely cure BC has challenged conventional medicine. Consequently, complementary alternative medicine has become popular due to its safety and efficacy. Haematococcus pluvialis (H. pulvialis) is a green microalga living in fresh water, and its crude extract is rich of bioactives, including carotenoids, known to inhibit cancer cell growth. In the present study, we investigated the effects of a methanol crude extract called “T1” of H. pulvialis on cell growth and migration/invasion of the BC cell line MDA-MB-231 in comparison to the fibroblast control cells. TI significantly suppressed BC cell growth, inhibited migration and invasion and induced apoptosis. Interestingly, apoptosis was mediated by a significant loss of mutant p53 protein, and increased Bax/Bcl2 ratio. Our findings support our hypothesis that T1 exerts its anti-cancer effects by inhibiting BC invasion and inducing apoptosis mediated, at least, via the p53/Bax/Bcl2 pathway. Ongoing experiments aim to identify the molecular mechanisms underpinning T1-inhibited BC cell invasion using pre-designed metastasis gene-based array method.

Extracts from Microalgae and Archaea from the Andalusian Coast: A Potential Source of Antiproliferative, Antioxidant, and Preventive Compounds

“…Moreover, our results suggest that the AE resulted in the greatest inhibition of T84 migratory activity at 24 h of treatment, with Haloarcula hispanica and Halobacterium salinarum extracts reducing it by 31.6% and 34.4%, respectively. Similar results were obtained by Alateyah et al [40], who observed that the methanolic extract of the microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis significantly reduced the migratory capacity of the breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 by 68% at 48 h of treatment.…”

Microalgal bioactive metabolites as promising implements in nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals: inspiring therapy for health benefits

“…Moreover, cryptophycin 1 and borophycin isolated from Nostoc indicated anti-tumorigenic activity against human tumor cells, and KB and LoVo cell lines, respectively (Singh and Krishna 2019 ). Recently, it has been reported that methanolic extract (T1) of H. pulvialis showed anticancerous activity by suppressing invasion of breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) and promoting apoptosis through biochemical pathway involving p53/Bax/Bcl2 (Alateyah et al 2022 ). The phytochemicals showed anticarcinogenic activities by interfering cancer initiation, growth, development or progression through variation of several mechanisms such as cells proliferation, growth and differentiation, apoptosis and metastasis.…”

Molecular Evidence of Breast Cancer Cell Proliferation Inhibition by a Combination of Selected Qatari Medicinal Plants Crude Extracts

“…The highly metastatic aggressive triple negative BC cell MDA-MB-231 was obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC, Manassas, Virginia). The primary dermal normal human neonatal fibroblast (HDFn), a cell line isolated from neonatal dermis were obtained from Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar [20,31,32]. The cells were supplemented with DMEM media containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), 1% penicillin-streptomycin, and 5% L-glutamine and then cultured and incubated at 37 • C in a humidified incubator adjusted to 5% CO 2 .…”

“…Upon treatment with the sub-optimal dose of the SC, both MDA-MB-231 and human fibroblast cells were monitored alive under the microscope (OPTIKA Microscopes, Ponteranica, Italy) at 24 and 48 h post treatment [31,32].…”

“…To determine the effect of the SC treatment on BC cell migration, wound healing assay was applied to MDA-MB-231 cells, as we have previously reported [31]. Briefly, the cells were incubated in 6-well plates, and prior to the treatment, a straight scratch was made in each well using a sterile pipette tip.…”