Prodigiosin is a secondary metabolite, with red pigmentation, produced by Serratia marcescens. Red pigment is a natural alkaloid whose chemical structure has three pyrrole rings. Prodigiosin has been described for several biological activities, including antitumor, inducing apotosis in T and B lymphocytes. This work aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic activity of prodigiosin in NCHI-292, HEp-2, MCF-7 and HL-60 tumor cell lines. The red pigment was isolated from Serratia marcescens UFPEDA 398 biomass whose fractions were previously separated by column chromatography, purified, identified and further characterized by GC–MS and compared with the computerized library of m/z values. The pigment corresponded to prodigiosin with maximum absorption at 534 nm, molecular weight 323 and structural formula C₂₀H₂₅N₃O. During the prodigiosin purification process a purple absorbance fraction at 272.65 nm was also observed. Significant cytotoxic effects of prodigiosin were evidenced for NCHI-292, Hep-2, MCF-7 and HL-60 tumor cell lines. The isolated purple fraction had no cytotoxic effect (IC₅₀ 11.3 µg/mL) when compared to prodigiosin (IC₅₀ 3.4 µg/mL) for the tumor cell lines studied. The MCF-7 strain was slightly more pigment resistant (IC₅₀ 5.1 µg/mL). Therefore, further studies will be needed to elucidate the antitumor mechanisms of prodigiosin action against tumor strains from flow cytometry tests. However, although these data are preliminary, it was evidenced that prodigiosin showed cytotoxic activity in tumor cell lines suggesting promising antitumor properties. In this sense, future studies on the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of prodigiosin produced by S. marcecsens UFPEDA 398 are suggested.

中文翻译：

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从粘质沙雷菌 UFPEDA 398 中分离的天然红色素灵菌红素的细胞毒性作用


灵菌红是粘质沙雷氏菌产生的具有红色色素的次级代谢产物。红色素是一种天然生物碱，其化学结构具有三个吡咯环。灵菌红素已被描述为具有多种生物活性，包括抗肿瘤、诱导 T 和 B 淋巴细胞凋亡。这项工作旨在评估灵菌红素在 NCHI-292、HEp-2、MCF-7 和 HL-60 肿瘤细胞系中的细胞毒活性。红色素是从粘质沙雷氏菌UFPEDA 398 生物质中分离出来的，其组分事先通过柱色谱分离、纯化、鉴定，并通过 GC-MS 进一步表征，并与计算机化的 m/z 值库进行比较。该颜料对应于灵菌红，在534 nm处具有最大吸收，分子量为323，结构式为C ₂₀ H ₂₅ N ₃ O。在灵菌红纯化过程中，还观察到在272.65 nm处的紫色吸光度部分。灵菌红素对 NCHI-292、Hep-2、MCF-7 和 HL-60 肿瘤细胞系具有显着的细胞毒性作用。对于所研究的肿瘤细胞系，与灵菌红素 (IC ₅₀ 3.4 µg/mL) 相比，分离的紫色组分没有细胞毒性作用 (IC ₅₀ 11.3 µg/mL)。 MCF-7 菌株的色素抗性稍强 (IC ₅₀ 5.1 µg/mL)。因此，需要进一步研究通过流式细胞术测试阐明灵菌红素对抗肿瘤菌株的抗肿瘤机制。然而，尽管这些数据是初步的，但有证据表明灵菌红在肿瘤细胞系中显示出细胞毒活性，表明其具有良好的抗肿瘤特性。 从这个意义上说，建议未来对S. marcecsens UFPEDA 398 产生的灵菌红素的细胞毒性和基因毒性作用进行研究。