Antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic properties against colon carcinoma cell line of the marine sponge haliclona sp. From poblacion, kauswagan, lanao del norte, Philippines

Marine sponge Haliclona sp. was examined for its anticancer potential focusing on the antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic properties against HCT116 (colon) cancer cell line. The 16 fractions obtained from Haliclona sp. were subjected to antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic evaluation via MTT (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay and Caspase-Glo 3/7 assay, respectively, at 30 μg/mL concentration. Fractions 10, 13, 14, and 15 exhibited a significant decrease (p < 0> 50�ll viability) against HCT116. Only fraction 8 showed a significant increase (p < 0.05) in relative light unit (RLU) and fold change (FC) (1809.78 and 2.42), more than two times larger, compared to the negative control (754.89 RLU and 1.00 FC). This result demands further study on fraction 8 to identify and characterize the structure of the compounds responsible for its bioactivity and hence could be a source of drug leads.