Journal of Antimicrobial Agents

Production of Antitumor Agents from Novel Marine Actinomycetes Strains Isolated from Alexandria, Egypt

Abstract

Manal M El-Naggar, Samy A El-Assar and Abir Mohamed Ali Shata

Production of antitumor agent(s) from alternative natural marine microbial resources may decrease or avoid the bad side effects of the used anti-tumour chemotherapeutic agents and may increase the specificity of the antitumor agents to be safer for human application. So, this study aimed to search for new alternative antitumor agent producers using two recommended bioassays (Red Potato Disc Bioassay and Sulforhodamine B Bioassay). The obtained results indicated the isolation of three new marine actinomycetes strains from the western harbor of Alexandria, they identified using the 16S rRNA gene sequence as Streptomyces sp. strain AMS11, Nocardiopsis halotolerans strain AMS10b and Nocardiopsis halotolerans strain AMS10a. The bio-toxicity test was carried out using the biomarker Artemia salina, they showed a moderate toxicity level (LC50< 1000 ppm). The antitumor activities of their supernatants against the colon cancer cell line (HCT116) and the liver cancer cell line (HEPG2) showed promising results in comparison to the recommended chemotherapeutic drug 5-flourouracil used for the treatment of both liver and colon cancer cells. The optimization for antitumor activity was performed using the Plackett –Burman experimental design.