Seaweeds have proven to be nutrient-dense and are rich in antioxidants, like phenolics, flavonoids, and other essential metabolites that help to provide their medicinal benefits. Non-targeted metabolite profiling of the tropical green seaweed Acrosiphonia orientalis showed the presence of numerous groups of contents, including sugars, essential amino acids, and fatty acids. Targeted metabolite profiling using HPLC identified 17 amino acids. The extract exhibited a very low half-maximal effective concentration (EC50) dosage for HeLa and Huh-7 cell lines, indicating a high likelihood of anticancer properties. A significant positive correlation was found between biological activities, such as antioxidation, scavenging, and reducing power with the phenolic and flavonoid contents. The extract revealed augmentation of proliferation in selected cervical cells, as it upregulated p53 1.3-fold, and downregulated important cancerous genes such as Cas-3 and DNMT 12- and 8-fold, respectively. An approximate 55-fold downregulation was observed in selected hepatic cell lines. Microarray analysis of hepatic cells indicated 0.27% and 0.07% upregulation of coding and non-coding genes, respectively, and 0.41% and 0.13% downregulation of coding and non-coding genes, respectively. As a consequence, it can be said that A. orientalis has possible medicinal use, such as anticancer activity, and therefore may be an intriguing food component that has potential as a regular dietary supplement.
Keywords: Acrosiphonia; antiproliferative activity; bioactivity; functional food; human health; metabolomics; nutraceutical; seaweeds.