Physcion from marine-derived fungus Microsporum sp. induces apoptosis in human cervical carcinoma HeLa cells

Recently, the relationship between apoptosis and cancer has been emphasized and the induction of apoptosis is recognized as one of the key mechanisms of anti-cancer agents. Marine-derived fungi are valuable sources of structurally diverse bioactive anticancer agents. In the present study, a marine-derived fungus, Microsporum sp. was cultured and an anthraquinone derivative, physcion (11.8 mg) was isolated from the culture broth extract (1710 mg). Physcion has shown cytotoxic effect on human cervical carcinoma HeLa cells and its apoptosis induction in HeLa cells was investigated by the expressions of p53, p21, Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-9, and caspase-3 proteins. The Western blot analysis has revealed that physcion could significantly induce cell apoptosis through down-regulating of Bcl-2 expression, up-regulating of Bax expression, and activating the caspase-3 pathway. Furthermore, physcion induced the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in HeLa cells. Collectively, these results suggest that physcion could be a potential candidate in the field of anticancer drug discovery against human cervical cancer.