Prophyletic origin of algae as potential repository of anticancer compounds

Abstract

Algae are photosynthetic eukaryotic organism which is a promising source of therapeutic bioactive compounds, used in treatment of many clinical ailments such as obesity, cancer, diabetes, inflammation, neurodegenerative diseases, viral infection, microbial infections, etc. Several studies on algal genera especially on Chlorophyceae, Pheophyceae, and Rhodophyceae have reported their potential use as antiproliferative, antiangiogenic, apoptotic-inducer and cytotoxic. The algal compounds such as some polysaccharide, glycoprotein, siphonaxanthin, plocornulides, sodwanone, stypodiol diacetate, cannabinoids, etc. have well studied using different cancer cell lines and they showed promising results for cancer treatment and improvement of quality of life of the patients. The molecular mechanisms of algal bioactive compound as anticancer include dysregulation of the mitochondrial dynamics, caspases activation, amplification of death signals through death receptors, etc. These mechanisms may support to defeat the multifaceted of cancerous cells. In this chapter, the anticancer property of algal species belongs to different algal genera and their bioactive compounds have discussed with relevant mechanism of actions. © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.