Study of Cell Cytotoxicity of Extracted Compounds from Saprophytic Fungi and Evaluation of Programmed Cell Death on the Treated Cancerus Cell Line

Trichoderma harzianum is a saprophytic fungus that so far several studies have been conducted on it. In order to evaluate of cytotoxicity and antioxidant properties of the mycelium of the fungus, the cultivated mycelium of T. harzianum was extracted, successively, with petroleum ether and ethyl acetate. Cell viability of MCF-7 cell line were measured by MTT assay and the antioxidant potential of the extracts of the mycelium was evaluated by the DPPH assay. The purified compounds were determined using GC/MS. Our results showed that, petroleum ether extract, displayed significant cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 cell line in culture with a IC50 value of 1.45 mg/ml at 4h. The ethyl acetate extract exhibited cytotoxic effects against MCF-7 cell line with a IC50 value of 84, 99.88 and 109.74 µg/ml at 4, 16 and 24h, respectively. These results, indicating that the ethyl acetate extract has higher anti-proliferation activity. The ethyl acetate extract showed acceptable antioxidant effect with RC50 value of 6.67 mg/ml. Additionally these results were subsequently confirmed using phase-contrast microscopic evaluation. GC/MS analysis of the ethyl acetate extract revealed the presence of anticancerous compounds such as Squalene. According to these results, it seems that Squalene is responsible for cytotoxic effects of the mycelium of the fungus, that can used as a potentially cytotoxic agent against breast cancer cell line.