IN-VITRO ANTI-CANCER ACTIVITY OF TWO BRITTLE STAR SPECIES: OPHIOCOMA ERINACEUS AND OPHIOMASTRIX ANNULOSA

Marine organisms are excellent sources of structurally diverse molecules that are potentially valuable as drugs. The brittle starfish was shown to contain the bioactive components which exhibit various biological activities including cytotoxicity effects. Hence, the present study was carried out to determine the cytotoxicity of the extracts of two different starfish species like Ophiocoma erinaceus and Ophiomastrix annulosa. The homogenized fresh body component of brittle starfish was extracted and concentrated. The cytotoxic effect of EtOH extract of Ophiocoma erinaceus and Ophiomastrix annulosa against cancer cell lines was determined by MTT assay. In this study, it was observed that the extracts induce a concentration-dependent inhibition of cells against MCF -7, VERO and HELA cell line at a lower concentration. Based on abundance, the top three major compounds present in the O. erinaceus were n-Nonadecanol-1 (24.643), Ethyl 9-hexadecenoate (26.437) and hexadecanoic acid, ethyl ester (26.868). The starfish extract exhibited strong cytotoxicity against cancer cells. Overall, these findings confirmed the utility of clinical investigations of the efficacy of starfish extracts in preventing in cancer chemotherapy.