Cultivated microalgae and the carotenoid fucoxanthin from Odontella aurita as potent anti-proliferative agents in bronchopulmonary and epithelial cell lines.

The antiproliferative activities of several extracts from cultivated microalgae in France have been studied against bronchopulmonary and epithelial cell lines, respectively (A549, NSCLC-N6 and SRA 01/04). The algal extracts, of Diatomae (Odontella aurita, Chaetoseros sp.), as well as of Haptophyceae: Isochrisys aff. galbana, appeared as the most active among all the assayed species, expressing a broad spectrum of in vitro antiproliferative activity of well-differentiated pathologic cells such as NSCLC-N6 by terminal differentiation. Bio-guided fractionation of the above referred extracts, led us to the isolation, of the carotenoid fucoxanthin. Fucoxanthin has been structurally determined, through modern spectral means and has been studied separately for its activities.

3-Keto steroids from the marine organisms Dendrophyllia cornigera and Cymodocea nodosa.

The new (20R)-22E-cholesta-4,22-diene-3,6-dione (1), along with three known 3-keto steroids were isolated from the deep-water Mediterranean scleractinian coral Dendrophyllia cornigera (2-4). Moreover, four known related 3-keto steroids were isolated from the sea grass Cymodocea nodosa (5-8). The structure elucidation of steroid 1 and the full NMR resonance assignments of all isolated metabolites were based on interpretation of their spectral data. All compounds are reported for the first time as metabolites of the investigated organisms. Compounds 2 and 3 showed significant cytotoxicity against lung cancer NSCLC-N6 cell line.