Characterization and biological applications of gonadal extract of Paracentrotus lividus collected along the Mediterranean coast of Alexandria, Egypt.

Marine invertebrates represent a valuable reservoir of pharmaceutical bioactive compounds with potential relevance to various medical applications. These compounds exhibit notable advantages when compared to their terrestrial counterparts, in terms of their potency, activity, and mechanism of action. Within this context, the present work aimed to extract, chemically characterize, and investigate the bioactivity of the gonadal extract of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus (P. lividus) collected along the Mediterranean coast of Alexandria, Egypt. Fractions of the gonadal extract were characterized by Spectrophotometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and their bioactivities were investigated in vitro. The analysis supported the extract richness of carotenoids and bioactive compounds. The extract showed promising anticancer activity against three different breast cancer cell lines with different levels of aggressiveness and causative factors, namely MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-453, and HCC-1954. Gene expression analysis using RT-qPCR showed that P. lividus extract inhibited the expression of crucial factors involved in cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. In addition, the extract significantly inhibited the lipo-polysaccharides (LPS) induced inflammation in the RAW264.7 macrophage cell line and exerted anti-bacterial activity against the Gram-negative bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Collectively, these results demonstrated the chemical richness and the wide-scale applicability of P. lividus gonadal extract as an anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory natural extract.

Anti-anxiety and antidepressant-like effects of astragaloside IV and saponins extracted from Astragalus spinosus against the bisphenol A-induced motor and cognitive impairments in a postnatal rat model of schizophrenia.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical endocrine disruptor to which humans are often exposed in daily life. Postnatal administration of BPA results in schizophrenia (SCZ)-like behaviours in rats. The present study was designed to elucidate whether treatment with astragaloside IV (ASIV) or saponins extracted from Astragalus spinosus improves the neurobehavioural and neurochemical disturbances induced by BPA. Fifty-two juvenile (PND20) male Sprague Dawley rats were divided into four groups. The rats in Group I were considered the control rats, while the rats in Group II were orally administered BPA (125 mg/kg) daily from PND20 to adult age (PND117). The rats in the third and fourth groups were administered BPA (125 mg/kg/day) supplemented with astragaloside IV (80 mg/kg/d) on PND20 or A. spinosus saponins (100 mg/kg/d) from PND50 to PND117, respectively. Administration of ASIV and saponins extracted from Astragalus spinosus reversed the anxiogenic and depressive-like behaviours and the social defects that were observed in the rats treated with BPA alone. Additionally, these compounds improved memory impairments, restored dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT), and monoamine oxidase (MAO-A) levels and normalized Tph2 mRNA expression towards the control values. Taken together, it can be concluded that orally administered ASIV and A. spinosus saponins exhibit neuroprotective effects and that these compounds can be used as therapeutic strategies against BPA-induced neuropsychiatric symptoms in a rat model of SCZ.