Anticancer Activity and Mechanism Investigation of Beauvericin Isolated from Secondary Metabolites of the Mangrove Endophytic Fungi

One known cyclic peptide, beauvericin, was isolated from the secondary metabolites of mangrove endophytic fungi Fusarium sp. (No. DZ27) in South China Sea. Its structure was determined by spectral analyses and comparisons with reference data from literatures. Beauvericin inhibited growth of KB and KBv200 cells potently with IC50 values of 5.76 ± 0.55 and 5.34 ± 0.09 μM, respectively. Furthermore, beauvericin induced apoptosis through mitochondrial pathway, including decrease of relative oxygen species generation, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, release of cytochrome c, activation of Caspase-9 and -3, and cleavage of PARP. Additionally, regulation of Bcl-2 or Bax was not involved in the apoptosis induced by beauvericin in KB and KBv200 cells.