Chemical Structure and In Vitro Antitumor Activity of Rhamnolipids from Pseudomonas aeruginosa BN10

A newly isolated indigenous strain BN10 identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa was found to produce glycolipid (i.e., rhamnolipid-type) biosurfactants. Two representative rhamnolipidic fractions, RL-1 and RL-2, were separated on silica gel columns and their chemical structure was elucidated by a combination of nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectroscopy. Subsequently, their cytotoxic effect on cancer cell lines HL-60, BV-173, SKW-3, and JMSU-1 was investigated. RL-1 was superior in terms of potency, causing 50 % inhibition of cellular viability at lower concentrations, as compared to RL-2. Furthermore, the results from fluorescent staining analysis demonstrated that RL-1 inhibited proliferation of BV-173 pre-B human leukemia cells by induction of apoptotic cell death. These findings suggest that RL-1 could be of potential for application in biomedicine as a new and promising therapeutic agent.