, 2005). However, research on antiproliferative compounds has still demonstrated the great pharmacological importance of biological extracts (Clardy and Walsh, 2004, Cragg and Newman, 2005 and Ferreira et al., 2011b). In the last decades, toads have received special attention,

with many publications describing the biological activities of molecules and aqueous and organic extracts obtained from skin glands, whose secretions exhibit bufadienolides, compounds that may act as endogenous steroidal hormones (Schoner and Scheiner-Bobis, 2005) and display antiangiogenic selleck (Lee et al., 1997), antihypertensive (Vu et al., 2006), immunosuppressive (Terness et al., 2001), anti-endometrial (Nasu et al., 2005) and positive inotropic (Cruz and Matsuda, 1993) actions. Herein, we investigated the chemical composition of extracts of R. marina and R. guttatus venoms and their antiproliferative activity in transformed and normal Epigenetic inhibitor cells. Chemical investigations showed significant differences

in composition between R. marina and R. guttatus venoms, in terms of the number and type of constituents. R. marina venom contained four bufadienolides, namely telocinobufagin (1), marinobufagin (2), bufalin (3) and resibufogenin (4) ( Figs. 1 and 2), whereas only one bufadienolide (marinobufagin – 2) was identified in R. guttatus venom. No obvious chemical differences were observed TCL between male and female toads. These compounds have also been identified in other

toad species such as Rhinella schneideri, Bufo bufo gargarizans, Bufo melanosticus, Bufo viridis and Bufo rubescens ( Gao et al., 2010, Cunha-Filho et al., 2010 and Cunha-Flho et al., 2005). There are a number of potential reasons for this variation in venom composition such as species-specific differences, the diet of each species, and environmental factors ( Gao et al., 2010). The chemical profile of the toad venoms (R. marina and R. guttatus) in terms of the number and type of compounds present is mainly determined by the species of origin. Venom extracts from R. marina and R. guttatus (male and female) showed cytotoxic activity against cancer lines after 72 h exposure, mainly R. marina extracts, whose IC50 values were comparable to that of the positive control Dox. According to the American National Cancer Institute (NCI), an IC50 ≤ 30 μg/mL is needed to consider a crude extract promising for further purification and biological analyses ( Suffness and Pezzuto, 1990 and Ferreira et al., 2011b). Previous in vitro analyses have already demonstrated a multiplicity of bufadienolides with cytotoxic potential.