Cytotoxic effect of hexane and water extracts of Malaysian microalgae in the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line / Nurazalia Ahmad Khair

Many studies have reported that microalgae have the ability to treat breast cancer by several mechanisms due to the bioactive compounds existing in these species. However, studies on Malaysian microalgae is lacking. This study investigates the anticancer property of a Malaysian microalgae on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. The cytotoxic effect of hexane and water extracts of microalgae against MCF- 7 cells were investigated using in vitro cytotoxicity assay which is 3-( 4, 5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2, 5-diphenyl-2H­ tetrazolium bromide (MTI) assay. The results demonstrated that both hexane and water extract of microalgae has anti-proliferative effect on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. However, the hexane extract (with ICso value of 1.20 mg/mL) showed a greater potential compared to the water extract (with ICso value of 1.65 mg/mL) after 24 hour incubation. Further studies on microalgae need to be performed to explore more on the cytotoxic effect, with the types of extract taken into considerations.