Investigation of the effect of fucoidan on head and neck cancer

With the fast pace of scientific and technological advances, genetics research has increased towards the understanding of diseases at the molecular level and development of new treatment methods. Our study was carried out with the intention of both answering some of these questions and developing a new treatment method for head and neck cancer. Mozuku (latin name: Cladosiphon okamuranus) is a type of brown seaweed grown in Okinawa Japan and Taiwan. In this study, the molecular effects of Fucoidan in head and neck cancer, a common cancer in Turkey, was studied. The research aimed to answer the basic questions of Fucoidan's effect on cell proliferation and migration as well as to determine which genes in the apoptotic pathway are affected and in what manner they are affected. To determine its effect on cell proliferation, the xCELLigence E-plate system was used. After observing that Fucoidan inhibited cell proliferation, its IC50 dose was determined. Using the xCELLigence CIM-plate system, we also show that the IC50 dose inhibits cell migration. We found that Fucoidan did not have a significant effect on expression of genes associated with apoptosis at either the mRNA or protein level. We also show that there is no increase in caspase-3 activity. Together, these data suggest that Fuocidan did not induce apoptosis and that the inhibition of cell proliferation that we observed is due to its effect on some other pathway. Just as other studies have shown Fucoidan to have an effect on apoptosis, some other studies have shown it to affect autophagy and cause cell cycle arrest. This is an important study into the mechanism of action of Fucoidan in head neck cancer therapy and initial results show that it may be a potential therapeutic method. Keywords: Apoptosis, Fucoidan, Head and Neck Cancer, Migration, Proliferation