investigation on the biological activities of squalene derived from the soil fungus .

The consistent increase in multidrug resistance among pathogens and increased cancer incidence are serious public health concerns and threaten humans by killing countless lives. In the present study, CJ15 was characterized and evaluated for its antibacterial, candidicidal and cytotoxic activities. The selected isolate CJ15 with 18S rRNA gene sequence of 1021 base pairs exhibited antifungal activity on plant pathogens via dual culture. The GC-MS profiling of crude extract illustrated the existence of many bioactive macromolecules which include squalene belonging to the terpenoids family. The biological macromolecules in the bioactive fraction of CJ15 exhibited increasing antibacterial activity with an increase in concentration such that the highest activity was recorded against with 15, 18, 20, and 24 mm inhibition zones at 25, 50, 75 and 100 μl concentrations, respectively. The squalene, having a molecular weight of 410.718 g/mol, displayed candidicidal activity with a right-side shifted log phase in the growth curve of all the treated species, indicating delayed exponential growth. In cytotoxic activity, the extracted squalene exhibited an IC concentration of 26.22 μg/ml against JURKAT cells and induced apoptosis-induced cell death. This study's outcomes encourage the researchers to explore further the development of new and improved bioactive macromolecules that could help to prevent infections and human blood cancer.