Fusarium solani PQF9 Isolated from Podocarpus pilgeri Growing in Vietnam as a New Producer of Paclitaxel

Thi Hanh Nguyen Vu; Ngoc Tung Quach; Quynh Anh Pham; Phuong Chi Le; Van The Nguyen; Thi Thanh Xuan Le; Thi Thao Do; Do Hoang Anh; Tran Hong Quang; Hoang Ha Chu; Quyet Tien Phi

doi:10.1007/s12088-023-01119-z

Fusarium solani PQF9 Isolated from Podocarpus pilgeri Growing in Vietnam as a New Producer of Paclitaxel

Indian J Microbiol. 2023 Dec;63(4):596-603. doi: 10.1007/s12088-023-01119-z. Epub 2023 Oct 27.

Authors

Thi Hanh Nguyen Vu^{1

2}, Ngoc Tung Quach^{1

2}, Quynh Anh Pham¹, Phuong Chi Le¹, Van The Nguyen¹, Thi Thanh Xuan Le¹, Thi Thao Do^{1

2}, Do Hoang Anh³, Tran Hong Quang³, Hoang Ha Chu^{1

2}, Quyet Tien Phi^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Biotechnology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, 10072 Vietnam.
² Graduate University of Science and Technology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, 10072 Vietnam.
³ Institute of Marine Biochemistry, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, 10072 Vietnam.

Abstract

Endophytic fungi are known as an alternative promising source of anticancer drug, paclitaxel, however fungi inhabiting in medicinal plant Podocarpus pilgeri and their paclitaxel production have not been reported to date. In the present study, a total of 15 culturable fungi classified into 5 genera, were successfully recovered from P. pilgeri collected in Vietnam. Screening fungal dichloromethane extracts for anticancer activity revealed that only PQF9 extract displayed potent inhibitory effects on A549 and MCF7 cancer cell lines with IC₅₀ values of 33.9 ± 2.3 µg/mL and 43.5 ± 1.7 µg/mL, respectively. Through PCR-based molecular screening, the isolate PQF9 was found to possess 3 key genes involved in paclitaxel biosynthesis. Importantly, high-performance liquid chromatography quantification showed that fungal isolate PQF9 was able to produce 18.2 µg/L paclitaxel. The paclitaxel-producing fungus was identified as Fusarium solani PQF9 based on morphological and molecular phylogenetic analysis. Intensive investigations by chromatographic methods and spectroscopic analyses confirmed the presence of paclitaxel along with tyrosol and uracil. The pure paclitaxel had an IC₅₀ value of 80.8 ± 9.4 and 67.9 ± 7.0 nM by using cell viability assay on A549 lung and MCF7 breast cancer cells. In addition, tyrosol exhibited strong antioxidant activity by scavenging 2, 2-diphenyl-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (IC₅₀ 5.1 ± 0.2 mM) and hydroxyl radical (IC₅₀ 3.6 ± 0.1 mM). In contrast, no biological activity was observed for uracil. Thus, the paclitaxel-producing fungus F. solani PQF9 could serve as a new material for large-scale production and deciphering paclitaxel biosynthesis.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12088-023-01119-z.

Keywords: Anticancer; Endophytic fungi; Fusarium solani; Paclitaxel; Podocarpus pilgeri.

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