Investigation of the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of fungal secondary metabolites in A549 cell line

Cancer is one of the most important public health problems of the 21st century. Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer worldwide, with more than 1.9 million new cases in 2022. Secondary metabolites obtained from microfungi, which can be found almost everywhere in nature and provide extreme safety compliance, have many biological activities such as antimicrobial, anticancer, immunosuppressant. Within the scope of the thesis, 9 fungal isolates selected according to antioxidant diseases were determined as Aspergillus and Penicillium species with classical spread identification. Fungal isolates were fermented in liquid antioxidant medium for 30 days and then extracted with ethyl acetate. Fungal extracts, antioxidant preservatives, antimicrobial shields by DPPH method, cytotoxic effect by MTT method, apoptotic effects by Annexin V-PI and Caspase 3 methods were investigated. One of the fungal isolates is used as Talaromyces flavus. Three fungal isolates maintained over 70% antioxidant activity. According to IC50 values, the lyophilized sample of Talaromyces flavus extract and fermentation broth showed a high cytotoxic effect on the A549 cell line, while the healthy cell line, BJ cells, had a low cyto capacity. Measurements by flow cytometry have properties that fungal extracts cause early apoptosis. The application within the scope of the thesis shows that secondary metabolites belonging to Aspergillus and Penicillium genera have many active activities such as antioxidant, anticarcinogenic and antimicrobial.