Anticancer activity of sclerotiorin, isolated from an endophytic fungus Cephalotheca faveolata Yaguchi, Nishim. & Udagawa

Biodiversity provides critical support for drug discovery. A significant proportion of drugs are derived, directly or indirectly, from biological sources. Through high throughput screening (HTS) and bioassay-guided isolation, bioactive compound sclerotiorin has been isolated from an endophytic fungus Cephalotheca faveolata. Sclerotiorin was found to be potent anti-proliferative against different cancer cells. In this study sclerotiorin has been found to induce apoptosis in colon cancer (HCT-116) cells through the activation of BAX, and down-regulation of BCL-2, those further activated cleaved caspase-3 causing apoptosis of cancer cells.