Papuamine and haliclonadiamine, obtained from an Indonesian sponge Haliclona sp., inhibited cell proliferation of human cancer cell lines.

The extract of an Indonesian marine sponge Haliclona sp. showed potent cytotoxicity against human solid cancer cell lines, MCF-7 (breast), LNCap (prostate), Caco-2 (colon) and HCT-15 (colon) cells. Study on nuclear morphological changes and flow cytometric analysis suggested that the component(s) in the extract would induce an apoptosis to these cancer cells. Bioassay-guided isolation yielded two pentacyclic alkaloids, papuamine (1) and haliclonadiamine (2), which inhibited cell proliferation of six human cancer cell lines with IC50 values of 0.93-1.50 and 1.00-4.44 µM, respectively. Compounds 1 and 2 accumulated lymphoma U937 cells at sub-G1 phase and induced a condensation of chromatin and fragmentation of nucleus.