Deep-Sea Anemones Are Prospective Source of New Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Compounds

• Published in: Marine drugs 2021-11, Vol.19 (12), p.654
• Main Authors: Kvetkina, Aleksandra, Kostina, Elena, Gladkikh, Irina, Chausova, Victoria, Yurchenko, Ekaterina, Bakunina, Irina, Pivkin, Mikhail, Anastyuk, Stanislav, Popov, Roman, Monastyrnaya, Margarita, Kozlovskaya, Emma, Isaeva, Marina, Dmitrenok, Pavel, Leychenko, Elena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Actiniaria; Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents - chemistry; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antifungal Agents - chemistry; Antifungal Agents - pharmacology; Antiinfectives and antibacterials; antimicrobial activity; Antimicrobial agents; Antineoplastic Agents - chemistry; Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacology; Aquatic Organisms; Bacteria; Cancer; Candida albicans - drug effects; Cell Line, Tumor - drug effects; Cells; Cnidaria; Corallimorpharia; Cytotoxicity; Deep sea; Deep sea environments; Deep water; Drug Discovery; Enzymes; Ethanol; Fingerprinting; Fungicides; Galactosidase; Gram-positive bacteria; Gram-Positive Bacteria - drug effects; hemolytic activity; Invertebrates; Marine invertebrates; Marine Toxins - chemistry; Mass spectrometry; Metabolites; Morphology; Neoplasms; Peptide mapping; Peptides; Phylogenetics; Proteins; Russia; Scientific imaging; Sea Anemones; Spleen; Splenocytes; Survival; tentacle extracts; Tentacles; Toxins; Yeasts
• ISSN: 1660-3397; 1660-3397
• DOI: 10.3390/md19120654

The peculiarities of the survival and adaptation of deep-sea organisms raise interest in the study of their metabolites as promising drugs. In this work, the hemolytic, cytotoxic, antimicrobial, and enzyme-inhibitory activities of tentacle extracts from five species of sea anemones (Cnidaria, orders Actiniaria and Corallimorpharia) collected near the Kuril and Commander Islands of the Far East of Russia were evaluated for the first time. The extracts of and demonstrated maximal hemolytic activity, while high cytotoxic activity against murine splenocytes and Ehrlich carcinoma cells was found in the extract of . The extracts of cf. demonstrated the greatest activity against Ehrlich carcinoma cells but were not toxic to mouse spleen cells. Sea anemones cf. and are promising sources of antimicrobial and antifungal compounds, being active against Gram-positive bacteria , , and yeast . Moreover, all sea anemones contain α-galactosidase inhibitors. Peptide mass fingerprinting of and cf. extracts provided a wide range of peptides, predominantly with molecular masses of 4000-5900 Da, which may belong to a known or new structural class of toxins. The obtained data allow concluding that deep-sea anemones are a promising source of compounds for drug discovery.