Monitoring of sulfated polysaccharide content in marine sponges by Raman spectroscopy $ Lenize F. Maia a, *, Tatiani A. Gonzaga a , Rafael G. Carvalho b , Camila M. Leite b , Gisele Lobo-Hajdu c , Jair A.K. Aguiar b , Howell G.M. Edwards d , Luiz F.C. de Oliveira a a NEEM—Núcleo de Espectroscopia e Estrutura Molecular, Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil b Laboratório de Análise de Glicoconjugados, Dep. Bioquímica, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil c Laboratório de Genética Marinha, Departamento de Genética, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil d Chemical and Forensic Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, United Kingdom, United Kingdom A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 1 April 2016 Received in revised form 3 October 2016 Accepted 3 October 2016 Available online 5 October 2016 Keywords: Marine sponges Polymastia janeirensis Echinodictyum dendroides Dragmacidon reticulatum Raman spectroscopy sulfated polysaccharides A B S T R A C T In this work sulfated polyssacharides from the marine sponges Polymastia janeirensis, Echinodictyum dendroides and Dragmacidon reticulatum have been analyzed by Raman spectroscopy as well as by biochemical analysis. The results showed that Raman spectroscopy can be applied as a screening method in monitoring the separation of ionic compounds such as sulfated polysaccharides in marine biological systems. The technique has been proven to be suitable in identifying sulfated polysaccharides rather than glycosaminoglycans from sponge tissues. ã 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Sulfated polysaccharides from marine sponges are chemical compounds that contain specific complex molecules [1–7], identified to be involved in cell-cell recognition, cell adhesion [8], cell development, differentiation and cell-cell interaction [9– 11]. Different species of sponges are known to synthesize polysaccharides with a high diversity of sugar moieties and with high sulfate content [3,6,12,13]. Glyconectins are examples of sulfated polysaccharides with a cell adhesion function forming a new class of proteoglycan-like molecules found in several sponges [5,6,12]. The biological activities of sulfated polysaccharides from algae, invertebrates, vertebrates and plants have been well documented [14–18]. Sulfated polysaccharides from marine invertebrates such as echinoderms and tunicates have demon- strated potent anticoagulant activities [19–21] and from sponges, the anti-HIV bioactivity has recently been addressed [13]. In this work, we have investigated the occurrence of sulfated polysaccharides from the endemic species Polymastia janeirensis, Echinodictyum dendroides and the species Dragmacidon reticula- tum, which occur widely in the Eastern and Western Atlantic. It is worth mentioning that aqueous and crude organic extracts from P. janeirensis have shown antineoplastic, antichemotactic, antibacterial [22] and antiviral activities [23] and that they were also capable of inducing cell death apoptosis through an oxidative mechanism [24]. The characterization of sulfated polysaccharides here was made by a combination of biochemical methods and Raman spectroscopy, which have been used as an alternative method for identification of the sugar content in crude extracts and fractionated samples isolated during the purification process. Since Raman spectroscopy is now a method of choice for obtaining “molecular fingerprints” in a diversity of biomolecular systems, this may become an interesting option for the analysis of sulfated polysaccharides with the added advantage of being rapid, non-destructive of the specimen and for which no chemical or mechanical pre-treatment is necessary. This work is the first report on the characterization of polysaccharides isolated from marine invertebrates by Raman spectroscopy. $ Selected paper from for IV Encontro Brasileiro de Espectroscopia Raman (EnBraER), in Juiz de Fora, December 06–09, 2015. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: lenmaia@uol.com.br (L.F. Maia). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vibspec.2016.10.002 0924-2031/ã 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Vibrational Spectroscopy 87 (2016) 149–156 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Vibrational Spectroscopy journa l homepage: www.e lsevier.com/locate/vibspec