Toxicity Evaluation of Anti-cholinesterasic Amphibian Extracts by MTT and an Optimized Artemia salina Test

SPINELLI, ROQUE; RIETMANN, ÁLVARO; SANCHIS, IVAN; GOICOECHEA, HÉCTOR; SIANO, ÁLVARO

Chemistry and Biodiversity

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Lugar: Weinheim; Año: 2023

1612-1872

The amphibian skin is an important source of bioactivecompounds. Recently, our workgroup reported the bioactivityof new extracts from the Hylidae, Microhylidae and Leptodactylidaefamilies against several pathways involved in Alzheimer’sdisease. However, since cytotoxicity can be a limiting factor fortheir applicability, we evaluated the toxicity of nine amphibianskin extracts with reported anticholinesterase activity, using thetraditional MTT assay and an optimized Artemia salina test. Theproposed improvement, guided by experimental design, aimsto reduce the amount of biological sample needed. Overall, weproved that the active extracts were non-toxic at effectiveconcentration against cholinesterases (AChE/BChE), positioningthe amphibian skin as a promising and preliminary safe sourceof bioactive compounds in the anti-Alzheimer’s treatment.Interestingly, we demonstrated that both toxicity assays candiscriminate between toxic and non-toxic samples. We proposethe A. salina bioassay as a reliable and cost-effective alternativefor early toxicity screening.