Toxicity of Persian Gulf shell-less marine mollusc (Peronia peronii) methanolic extract on melanoma tumor mitochondria.

Introduction: Melanoma is known as an aggressive and highly lethal cancer. The poor prognosis and resistance to treatment are characteristics of melanoma. In melanoma cells, apoptosis signaling which relies heavily on the acute activity of mitochondria and reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation is suppressed. Studies have shown that compounds isolated from marine herbs and animals, have been shown to have cytotoxic consequences on cancerous cells in prior research. This study was designed to evaluate the apoptotic effect of methanolic extract of Persian Gulf shell-less marine mollusc (Peronia peronii) on skin mitochondria isolated from animal model of melanoma.

Purpose: Melanoma mitochondria obtained from skin of melanoma animal model are studied in this research to see whether extracts from Persian Gulf shell-less marine mollusc (Peronia peronii), has a cytotoxic impact on them.

Material and method: In this study, the mitochondria were isolated from melanoma cells via differential centrifugation were treated with various concentrations (650, 1300 and 2600 µg/ml) of methanolic extract of Peronia peronii. Then MTT(3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) viability assay, Reactive oxygen species (ROS) determination, Mitochondrial Membrane Potential (MMP) decline assay, mitochondrial swelling and cytochrome c release determination were performed. Flow cytometry assay of % apoptotic vs necrotic phenotypes was also performed on extract treated melanoma cells.

Results: The results of MTT assay showed that different concentrations of Peronia peronii extract significantly (P < 0.05) decreased the SDH activity in cancerous skin mitochondria with the IC50(1300 μg/ml). The ROS results also showed that all concentrations of Peronia peronii extracts significantly increased ROS production, MMP decline and the release of cytochrome c in cancer groups mitochondria. The swelling of mitochondria was significantly increased compared to the control group. In addition, the results of apoptosis assay showed that addition of root extract of Peronia peronii on melanoma cells increased apoptosis, while it had no effect on control non tumour cells.

Discussion and conclusion: Based on these results, the presence of potentially bioactive compounds in Peronia peronii make this Persian Gulf coastal herb a strong candidate for further molecular studies and clinical research in the field of melanoma cancer therapy.