Study of cytotoxic effects of metabolites produced by actinomycetes

Due to increasing prevalence of cancer, low efficiency or high toxicity of the current drug, novel cancer chemotherapy drugs are required. Natural bacterial products are among the richest sources of new compounds with different biological activity including anticancer properties. There are lots of commercialized naturally derived anticancer drug originated from actinomycetes. In the presented research, we aimed at mining Actinomycetes strains which are capable in production of potent anticancer compounds. Subjects and Forty indigenous Actinomycete strains were received and recovered from University of Tehran Microorganisms Collection (UTMC). Sporulation, seeding and fermentation of indigenous strains were carried out. Then, total produced secondary metabolites of each strain were investigated for their toxicity against eukaryotic cells on the model organism, Artemia franciscana. High (40-59%), medium (20-39%) and no toxicity effects were observed in 23, 16 and a single extract of the investigated strains, respectively. This study has shown that soil-dwelling Actinomycetes of Iran are a rich source of cytotoxic compounds with potentially anticancer activity. The introduced strains which produce potent cytotoxic compounds can be considered as reasonable candidates for further studies to find anticancer drugs.