ABSTRACT
Background: Malignant melanoma is a highly aggressive malignant melanocytic neoplasmwhich resists against the most conventional therapies. Sea cucumber as one ofmarine organisms contains bioactive compounds such as polysaccharide, terpenoidand other metabolites which have anti-cancer, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory andantioxidant properties. The present study was designed to investigate the anticancerpotential of saponin extracted from sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilata alone andin combination with dacarbazine on B16F10 melanoma cell line
Methods: The B16F10 cell line was treated with different concentrations of saponin [0,4, 8, 12, 16, 20micro g/ml], dacarbazine [0, 1200, 1400, 1600, 1800, 2000micro g/ml] and coadministrationof saponin-dacarbazine [1200 da +8 sp, 1200 da +4 sp] for 24 and 48 hrand the cytotoxic effect was examined by MTT, DAPI, acridine orange/propodium iodide,flow cytometry and caspase colorimetric assay
Results: The results exhibited that sea cucumber saponin, dacarbazine, and coadministrationof saponin-dacarbazine inhibited the proliferation of melanoma cellsin a dose and time dependent manner with IC[50]values of 10, 1400 and 4 +1200micro g/ml,respectively. Morphological observation of DAPI and acridine orange/propodium iodidestaining documented typical characteristics of apoptotic cell death. Flowcytometry assay indicated accumulation of IC[50]treated cells in sub-G1 peak. Additionally,saponin extracted induced intrinsic apoptosis via up-regulation of caspase-3and caspase-9
Conclusion: These results revealed that the saponin extracted from sea cucumber as anatural anti-cancer compound may be a new treatment modality for metastaticmelanoma and the application of sea cucumber saponin in combination withdacarbazine demonstrated the strongest anti-cancer activity as compared with thedrug alone