Cytotoxic Potential against MDA-MB-231 Breast Cancer Cells, Antidiabetic and Antioxidant activities of Red Sea seagrass, Cymodocea rotundata (E.H.) Asch. and Enhalus acoroides (L.f.) Royle, A Comparative Biological Study with a Chemical Correlation.

Cancer and diabetes are two of the major causes of mortality globally. Both elevate the generation of free radicals and reactive oxygen species, leading to oxidative tissue damage. Seagrass is the only marine angiosperm and is rarely explored compared to other marine organisms. It is a rich source of polyphenolic bioactive compounds that have an anti-oxidative property. Herein we study the bioprospective availability of Enhalus acoroides, Cymodocea rotundata. The study revealed the strong cytotoxic activity of Enhalus acoroides extract against MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells with an IC50 of 70.7 µg/ml, and both seagrass induced apoptosis in the treated cell line rather than necrosis without any cytotoxicity against normal human skin fibroblast (HSF). In the gene expression analysis, both extracts showed a dramatic reduction in CDC2, BCL-2, and surviving genes and a significant elevation in P53 gene expression levels in comparison to control cells. Enhalus acoroides showed potential antioxidant activity with an IC50 of 0.04 µg/ml; in contrast, Cymodocea rotundata possessed potent α-glucosidase inhibition of 59%. The chemical metabolic profiling of Enhalus acoroides using GC/MS and UPLC/ESI/TOF-MS revealed the identification of different chemical classes with a high concentration of phenolic compounds.