Toxicological studies on an anticancer drug with marine origin

HESA-A, which contains biologically active compounds of marine origin, has selective toxicity against cancer cells. The present work reports the results of studies investigating the acute and sub-acute oral toxicity of this drug in mice and rats. In acute toxicity study, doses of HESA-A up to 13.7 g/kg and in sub-acute study, oral doses of 1250, 2500 and 5000 mg/kg for 30 consecutive days did not cause any morbidity or mortality. Data analysis of body weight gain, gross observations, blood biochemistry, hematology and histopathological findings did not show significant differences between control and treated groups. An oral dose of 5000 mg/kg of HESA-A can be defined as no-observed-adverse-effectlevel [NOAEL] for mice and rats used under the experimental conditions