Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Apoptotic effect of astaxanthin from white shrimp shells on lung cancer A549 cells

Supita Tanasawet¹ , Wanida Sukketsiri², Pennapa Chonpathompikunlert³, Wanwimol Klaypradit^4,5, Morakot Sroyraya⁶, Pilaiwanwadee Hutamekalin⁷

¹Department of Anatomy, Division of Health and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science; ²Department of Pharmacology, Division of Health and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla 90112; ³Expert Centre of Innovative Health Food (InnoFood), Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR), Pathumthani, 12120; ⁴Center for Advanced Studies for Agriculture and Food; ⁵Department of Fishery Products, Faculty of Fisheries, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900; ⁶Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400; ⁷Department of Physiology, Division of Health and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla 90112, Thailand.

For correspondence:- Supita Tanasawet Email: supita.t@psu.ac.th Tel:+6674288135

Accepted: 22 August 2020 Published: 30 September 2020

Citation: Tanasawet S, Sukketsiri W, Chonpathompikunlert P, Klaypradit W, Sroyraya M, Hutamekalin P. Apoptotic effect of astaxanthin from white shrimp shells on lung cancer A549 cells. Trop J Pharm Res 2020; 19(9):1835-1842 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v19i9.6

© 2020 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the anti-cancer potential of astaxanthin from Litopenaeus vannamei encapsulated in liposomes (ASX) to treat lung cancer A549 cells.

Methods: Lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells were cultured and treated with ASX, following which cell viability and nuclear staining were performed. Generation of ROS was identified by the DCFH-DA assay while tetramethylrhodamine ethyl ester was used to determine the mitochondrial membrane potential. Flow cytometry was applied to investigate caspase-3/7 activity and cell cycle distribution.

Results: ASX inhibited growth of A549 in a concentration- and time- dependent manner. The IC₅₀ values at 24, 48 and 72 h were 53.73, 22.85, 17.46 µg/mL, respectively (p < 0.05). After incubation with ASX, the morphological changes were observed in A549 cells following Hoechst 33342/PI fluorescent staining. ASX increased ROS generation and was associated with the collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential, which subsequently triggered the activation of caspase-3/7 activity leading to apoptosis (p < 0.05). In addition, A549 cells accumulated in the G0/G1 phase.

Conclusion: The results suggest that ASX is a valuable nutraceutical agent to target A549 lung cancer cells via ROS-dependent pathway as well as blockage of cell cycle progression.

Keywords: Astaxanthin, Litopenaeus vannamei, Lung cancer, A549, Apoptosis