Abstract
The marine environment contains a number of plants, animals and micro organisms, which, due to the unique adaptations to their habitat, elaborate a wide diversity of natural products with specific bioactivities. These products provide a rich source of chemical diversity that can be used to design and develop new potentially useful therapeutic agents. The huge variety of the structures present in marine organisms has been illustrated through the case study of the sponge Plakortis simplex, whose chemical analysis, started in our laboratories about ten years ago, revealed an incredible variety and abundance of secondary metabolites. The obtained results have been presented with the intention of drawing some conclusions of general relevance. Particularly, the problem of the limited availability of natural compounds for both structural and preliminary pharmacological studies has been discussed, this issue becoming a serious obstacle when the pharmacological research reaches a more advanced stage. Furthermore, the origin of the chemodiversity in Plakortis simplex and, in general, in marine invertebrates has been discussed; in this respect, the possible cooperative role of symbiotic micro-organisms in the biosynthesis of the varied metabolic content typical of these organisms has been considered.
Keywords: marine, chemical diversity, bioactive natural products, glycolipids, alkaloids, polyketides, plakortis simplex, review
Current Medicinal Chemistry
Title: Chemical Diversity of Bioactive Marine Natural Products: An Illustrative Case Study
Volume: 11 Issue: 13
Author(s): Valeria Costantino, Ernesto Fattorusso, Marialuisa Menna and Orazio Taglialatela-Scafati
Affiliation:
Keywords: marine, chemical diversity, bioactive natural products, glycolipids, alkaloids, polyketides, plakortis simplex, review
Abstract: The marine environment contains a number of plants, animals and micro organisms, which, due to the unique adaptations to their habitat, elaborate a wide diversity of natural products with specific bioactivities. These products provide a rich source of chemical diversity that can be used to design and develop new potentially useful therapeutic agents. The huge variety of the structures present in marine organisms has been illustrated through the case study of the sponge Plakortis simplex, whose chemical analysis, started in our laboratories about ten years ago, revealed an incredible variety and abundance of secondary metabolites. The obtained results have been presented with the intention of drawing some conclusions of general relevance. Particularly, the problem of the limited availability of natural compounds for both structural and preliminary pharmacological studies has been discussed, this issue becoming a serious obstacle when the pharmacological research reaches a more advanced stage. Furthermore, the origin of the chemodiversity in Plakortis simplex and, in general, in marine invertebrates has been discussed; in this respect, the possible cooperative role of symbiotic micro-organisms in the biosynthesis of the varied metabolic content typical of these organisms has been considered.
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Cite this article as:
Costantino Valeria, Fattorusso Ernesto, Menna Marialuisa and Taglialatela-Scafati Orazio, Chemical Diversity of Bioactive Marine Natural Products: An Illustrative Case Study, Current Medicinal Chemistry 2004; 11 (13) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0929867043364973
DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0929867043364973 |
Print ISSN 0929-8673 |
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher |
Online ISSN 1875-533X |
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