Find in Library

Marine chitins (MC) have been utilized for the production of vast array of bioactive products, including chitooligomers, chitinase, chitosanase, antioxidants, anti-NO, and antidiabetic compounds. The aim of this study is the bioprocessing of MC into a potent anticancer compound, prodigiosin (PG), via microbial fermentation. This bioactive compound was produced by <i>Serratia marcescens</i> TKU011 with the highest yield of 4.62 mg/mL at the optimal conditions of liquid medium with initial pH of 5.65&#8722;6.15 containing 1% &#945;-chitin, 0.6% casein, 0.05% K₂HPO₄, and 0.1% CaSO₄. Fermentation was kept at 25 &#176;C for 2 d. Notably, &#945;-chitin was newly investigated as the major potential material for PG production via fermentation; the salt CaSO₄ was also found to play the key role in the enhancement of PG yield of <i>Serratia marcescens</i> fermentation for the first time. PG was qualified and identified based on specific UV, MALDI-TOF MS analysis. In the biological activity tests, purified PG demonstrated potent anticancer activities against A549, Hep G2, MCF-7, and WiDr with the IC₅₀ values of 0.06, 0.04, 0.04, and 0.2 &#181;g/mL, respectively. Mytomycin C, a commercial anti-cancer compound was also tested for comparison purpose, showing weaker activity with the IC₅₀ values of 0.11, 0.1, 0.14, and 0.15 &#181;g/mL, respectively. As such, purified PG displayed higher 2.75-fold, 1.67-fold, and 3.25-fold efficacy than Mytomycin C against MCF-7, A549, and Hep G2, respectively. The results suggest that marine chitins are valuable sources for production of prodigiosin, a potential candidate for cancer drugs.