272 © 2017 Journal of Advanced Pharmacy Education & Research | Published by SPER Publications Introduction Lung cancer is the major cause of cancer mortality worldwide accounting for 1.5 million deaths in 2012. [1] It constitutes 13% of the newly diagnosed cancer cases in 2015. [2] Among the major two types of lung cancer, the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) contributes to 80% of lung cancer deaths, which urges the need for novel therapies in the effective treatment and management of NSCLC. [3] ABSTRACT Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) contributes to 80% of lung cancer death. The poor survival rate is contributed by the uncontrolled proliferation, evasion of apoptosis, ubiquitous expression of cell survival genes, and resistance to anticancer therapies.This prompts the search for novel and potent drugs for the effective treatment and management of NSCLC. Marine seaweeds are rich in novel bioactives widely employed in pharma, medical, cosmetic, and food industries. For the current study, the ethyl acetate extract of Sargassum wightii is utilized to test antiproliferative efficacy against the NSCLC cell line A549. From ethyl acetate extract, two compounds, namely, n-hexadecanoic acid and l-(+)-ascorbic acid 2,6 dihexadecanoate were identified by mass spectrometry analysis.These compounds interacted with the cell survival protein PI3K which is upregulated in most of human cancers. The in silico results demonstrated that the algal compounds interacted with the target PI3K with a C score of 5. The in vitro antiproliferative activity of the ethyl acetate extract was analyzed by MTT assay. The apoptotic hallmarks including fragmentation of nuclei and DNA were observed in treated cells.The real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis of gene encoding PI3K showed the downregulation of the gene. The current results suggest that the compounds of S. wightii have antiproliferative activity and can control lung cancer through induction of apoptosis. Keywords: Non-small cell lung cancer, Sargassum wightii, antiproliferative property, n-hexadecanoic acid, l–(+)-ascorbic acid 2, 6 dihexadecanoate Novel anticancerous compounds from Sargassum wightii: In silico and in vitro approaches to test the antiproliferative effcacy S. M. Fazeela Mahaboob Begum 1 , S. Priya 1,2 , Raji Sundararajan 3 , S. Hemalatha 1 1 School of Life Sciences, B.S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, 2 Xinovem, Golden Jubilee Biotech Park, Chennai, India, 3 School of Engineering Technology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA Correspondence: S. Hemalatha, School of Life Sciences, B.S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. E-mail: hemalatha.sls@bsauniv.ac.in Apoptosis or programed cell death maintains the balance between cell proliferation and cell death. Uncontrolled proliferation results in oncogenesis. In NSCLC cell lines, the deletion or inactivation of the tumor suppressor genes directly contributes to the uncontrolled proliferation and prolonged survival of cancer cells. [4] Hence, drugs that can inhibit uncontrolled proliferation and induce apoptosis may be effective in the management and treatment of cancer. A number of FDA-approved anticancer drugs are derived from the sea, including cytarabine, eribulin mesylate, and trabectedin. This has triggered the pharmaceutical industries to focus on marine natural products, and many marine bioactives have entered into the pre-clinical and clinical trials. [5] Marine seaweeds are a rich source in novel bioactives, which are widely employed in pharma, medical, cosmetic, and food industries. The marine brown algae of genus Sargassum is reported to possess antithrombotic, antiplatelet, antiviral, and anticancer properties. [6-8] In the current study, the marine brown algae Sargassum wightii was extracted, and the phytoconstituents were analyzed for the antiproliferative efficacy against the NSCLC cell line How to cite this article: Begum SMFM, Priya S, Sundararajan R, Hemalatha S. Novel anticancerous compounds from Sargassum wightii: In silico and in vitro approaches to test the antiproliferative efficacy. J Adv Pharm Edu Res 2017;7(3):272-277. Source of Support: Nil, Conflict of Interest: None declared. Access this article online Website: www.japer.in E-ISSN: 2249-3379 This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. Original Article