Effective Detection, Isolation and Characterization of Dakaramine from Ghanaian Axinella sp and Bioactivity

The Ghanaian sponge Axinella sp collected for the first time from the Gulf of Guinea yielded similar amounts of dakaramine (1), acetamide and a new hydroxylated acetate metabolite (2). The structures of these metabolites were elucidated by 1D and 2D NMR data interpretation. The halogens in dakaramine were detected by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with inductively coupled plasma and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICPMS/ESMS), a technique that allows for heteroatoms and metals in organic compounds to be detected specifically and with very high sensitivity. Cytotoxicity of dakaramine was assessed in vitro using two human cancer cell lines, human lymphocytic cell (Jurkat) and acute promyelocytic leukemia (HL60). This compound was found to be acutely toxic to these cell lines with IC50 values of 35.0 and 26.5 μg/ml respectively.