Abstract
Cancer is ranked as the second most common cause of death worldwide and searching new therapeutic agents for cancer treatment remains a major challenge. Despite the remarkable developments in cancer therapy in past decades, there is still an insistent necessity for innovative drugs in cancer biology, particularly in the under-explored area of marine anticancer compounds. Algae are photosynthetic organisms consisting of a total of 30,000 species that thrive in a watery environment. The identification of novel natural products and metabolites extracted from algae with anticancer potential is a major step forward in cancer therapeutic studies. Considering the huge potential for developing innovative drugs from natural compounds derived from marine algae, only a few substances have been used in cancer therapy. In this review, the authors discussed the potential antitumor effect of various species of algae for future applications in pharmaceutical industries.
TopBackground
With a frequency of 90%, marine macroalgae, often known as seaweeds, is the most common in marine flora. The behavior of antioxidant phytochemical elements in Seaweed Chaetomorpha sp. extracts has gotten a lot of interest because of their potential function in illness prevention. Seaweeds also account for half of the global photosynthesis quota (Dhargalkar & Pereira, 2005). In China, seaweeds have been utilized for medicinal purposes for over 2000 years (Chengkui & Junfu, 1984). Seaweeds have captivated the interest of many researchers in the last three decades because of their capabilities to fight various diseases including gallstones, stomach ailments, eczema, cancer, renal disorders, scabies, psoriasis, asthma, arteriosclerosis, heart disease, lung diseases, and ulcers (Saadaoui et al., 2020).
For drug development, the medicinal potential of such compounds was thoroughly explored. They are a potential source of biologically active compounds, including proteins, lipids, and polyphenols with strong antibacterial properties, anti-cancer, antioxidants, antimicrobials, and antivirals (Kumar et al., 2008; Holdt & Kraan, 2011; Ashwini et al., 2016). Hundreds of potential anti-tumor agents, in particular marine-based algae, have been isolated. In current years, several authors have been reporting the isolation of cytotoxic antitumor substances from marine organisms.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Apoptosis: Cell death that happens as a natural and regulated element of an organism’s development.
Antitumor: Preventing the development of tumour.
Cell Line: Permanently formed cultured cells which will grow continually if provided with adequate new medium and space.
In-Vivo: A research is conducted on or inside a biological creature as a whole.
Antioxidant: A compound that preserves cells from free radical damage.
In-Vitro: A controlled environment, such as a test tube or petri dish, is used by researchers to conduct experiments outside of a living organism.
Algae: A kind of aquatic plant that belongs to a wide group that consists of seaweeds and various single-celled forms.
Cancer: An illness characterized by the unregulated division of aberrant cells in a body area.