Preliminary report on cholinesterase inhibition in freshwater sponges of East Java

¹ Biology Department, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember Surabaya
² Center for Natural Product Medicine Research and Development, Institute of Tropical Diseases, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, 60115, East Java, Indonesia
³ Natural Product Drug Discovery and Development Research Group, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, 60115, East Java, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

Despite being less studied than their marine counterparts, freshwater sponges are increasingly recognized as sources of bioactive compounds with promising pharmacological potential. Despite their diversity of compounds due to less research attention and ecological differences than marine species, we report the potency of cholinesterase inhibitory of freshwater sponges from the East Java region, namely Eunapius carteri and Oncosclera asiatica. Cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) target acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), which break down acetylcholine. Inhibition of these enzymes increases acetylcholine levels, which is beneficial in treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). The ethanolic extracts were preliminarily screened and evaluated in vitro for their inhibition potency toward AChE and BChE using the modified Ellman’s method, and galantamine (100 g/mL) was used as a positive control at 100 µg/mL. Two samples showed low cholinesterase inhibitory activity, valued 2.68 ± 1.24 of AChE and 1.56 ± 1.17 of BChE for E. carteri. Simultaneously, low AChE values of 7.81 ± 0.32 AChE and 3.45 ± 0.47 for O. asiatica indicated low AChE and BChE potencies