Honeybee associated Aspergillus niger AW17 as a source of selective anticancer compounds with cytotoxicity evaluation in human cancer cell lines.

Hamada A Zina, Mohamed H Kalaba, Abdelghany S Shaban, Ahmed A Elrefaey, Hesham M Mahdy, Abdullah Haikal

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Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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1citing papers in PubMed

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1 citing paper in PubMed.

Aspergillus niger as a New Endophytic Fungus From Deverra tortuosa: Phytochemical Profile, Molecular Docking, Antimicrobial, Antibiofilm, Antioxidant, and Anticancer Activities.MicrobiologyOpen · 2026
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6 authors.

Hamada A ZinaBotany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, 11884, Egypt.

Mohamed H KalabaBotany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, 11884, Egypt. m_kalaba@azhar.edu.eg.

Abdelghany S ShabanBotany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, 11884, Egypt. Abdelghanysobhy@azhar.edu.eg.

Ahmed A ElrefaeyBotany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, 11884, Egypt.

Hesham M MahdyBotany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, 11884, Egypt.

Abdullah HaikalDepartment of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide, necessitating the discovery of novel therapeutic agents with improved efficacy and selectivity. This study investigated the anticancer potential of Aspergillus niger strain AW17 isolated from honeybees, a previously unexplored ecological niche for anticancer drug discovery. The fungal isolate was characterized through morphological, microscopic, and molecular methods, confirming its identity as Aspergillus niger. Chemical profiling using GC-MS and UPLC-MS/MS revealed a complex composition including high oleic acid content (28.88%) and unique compounds like pachymic acid (18.93%), rarely associated with A. niger. The extract's anticancer activity was evaluated against colorectal (Caco-2), liver (HepG2), breast (MCF-7), and lung (A549) cancer cell lines using MTT assay, confocal microscopy with AO/PI staining, cell cycle analysis, and apoptosis detection. Results demonstrated remarkable selective cytotoxicity of the Aspergillus niger extract against cancer cell lines, following the sensitivity hierarchy HepG2 (IC

Indexed as

Antineoplastic AgentsAspergillus nigerAnimalsApoptosisBeesCaco-2 CellsCell CycleCell Line, TumorHep G2 CellsHumansMCF-7 CellsAntineoplastic AgentsAnticancer activityApoptosisAspergillus NigerCell cycle arrestConfocal microscopyEcological nicheHoneybee microbiomeMembrane integrityOleic acidPachymic acid

Identifiers

PMID40940406

DOI10.1038/s41598-025-18565-y

PMCPMC12432222

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.