Marine Drugs, Volume 14, Issue 11

Since the 1990s, a number of terminal alkynyl residue-containing cyclic/acyclic peptides have been identified from marine organisms, especially cyanobacteria and marine mollusks. This review has presented 66 peptides, which covers over 90% marine pep...

Four new chromone derivatives, phomopsichins A–D (1–4), along with a known compound, phomoxanthone A (5), were isolated from the fermentation products of mangrove endophytic fungus Phomopsis sp. 33#. Their structures were elucidated based on comprehe...

Marine microalgae and seaweeds (microalgae) represent a sustainable source of various bioactive natural carotenoids, including β-carotene, lutein, astaxanthin, zeaxanthin, violaxanthin and fucoxanthin. Recently, the large-scale production of caroteno...

High seafood consumption has traditionally been linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, mainly due to the lipid lowering effects of the long chained omega 3 fatty acids. However, fish and seafood are also excellent sources of good qualit...

μ-Conotoxin GIIIA, a peptide toxin isolated from Conus geographus, preferentially blocks the skeletal muscle sodium channel Na_V1.4. GIIIA folds compactly to a pyramidal structure stabilized by three disulfide bonds. To assess the contributions of ind...

Tyrosinase is the rate-limiting enzyme critical for melanin synthesis and controls pigmentation in the skin. The inhibition of tyrosinase is currently the most common approach for the development of skin-whitening cosmetics. Gagunin D (GD), a highly...

Recently, there is a growing interest towards the development of strategies for invasive seaweed control and exploitation as source of secondary metabolites. Here, we investigated the potential of exploitation in biotechnology and recycling options i...

Nodularia spumigena is a toxic, filamentous cyanobacterium occurring in brackish waters worldwide, yet forms extensive recurrent blooms in the Baltic Sea. N. spumigena produces several classes of non-ribosomal peptides (NRPs) that are active against...

Penitrem A (PA) is a food mycotoxin produced by several terrestrial and few marine Penicillium species. PA is a potent tremorgen through selective antagonism of the calcium-dependent potassium BK (Maxi-K) channels. Discovery of natural products that...

While alkyl halides are valuable intermediates in synthetic organic chemistry, their use as bioactive motifs in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry is rare in comparison. This is likely attributable to the common misconception that these compounds...

Okadaic acid (OA) and the closely related dinophysistoxins (DTXs) are algal toxins that accumulate in shellfish and are known serine/threonine protein phosphatase (ser/thr PP) inhibitors. Phosphatases are important modulators of enzyme activity and c...

The neurotoxin β-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) has been identified as an environmental factor triggering neurodegenerative diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We investigated the possible vectors of BMA...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous myeloid clonal disorder exhibiting the accumulation of immature myeloid progenitors in the bone marrow and peripheral blood. Standard AML therapy requires intensive combination chemotherapy, which leads...

In recent years, many new enzymes, like glutaminyl cyclase (QC), could be associated with pathophysiological processes and represent targets for many diseases, so that enzyme-inhibiting properties of natural substances are becoming increasingly impor...

The properties and the production of new metabolites from the fungal strain LF657 isolated from the Herodotes Deep (2800 m depth) in the Mediterranean Sea are reported in this study. The new isolate was identified as Biscogniauxia mediterranea based...

The glycogen-synthase-kinase 3 (GSK-3) is an important target in drug discovery. This enzyme is involved in the signaling pathways of type 2 diabetes, neurological disorders, cancer, and other diseases. Therefore, inhibitors of GSK-3 are promising dr...

Seven new briarane diterpenoids, gemmacolides AZ–BF (1–7), were isolated together with eight known analogues (8–15) from the South China gorgonian Dichotella gemmacea. Their structures were elucidated based on detailed spectroscopic analysis and a co...

Makaluvamines are pyrroloiminoquinones isolated from Zyzzya sponges. Until now, they have been described as topoisomerase II inhibitors with cytotoxic effects in diverse tumor cell lines. In the present work, seven makaluvamines were tested in severa...

A series of oxy-polybrominated diphenyl ethers (O-PBDEs) has been isolated from the extracts of Miamira magnifica and Miamira miamirana collected from Queensland, Australia. M. magnifica sequesters the new OH-PBDE 1 and six known OH-PBDEs containing...

Cone snails are predatory creatures using venom as a weapon for prey capture and defense. Since this venom is neurotoxic, the venom gland is considered as an enormous collection of pharmacologically interesting compounds having a broad spectrum of ta...

In order to find new natural products with anti-inflammatory activity, chemical investigation of a 3000-meter deep-sea sediment derived bacteria Bacillus subtilis B5 was carried out. A new macrolactin derivative was isolated and identified as 7,13-ep...

Several common protein extraction protocols have been applied on seaweeds, but extraction yields have been limited. The aims of this study were to further develop and optimize existing extraction protocols and to examine the effect of enzymatic pre-t...

Peptides have gained increased interest as therapeutics during recent years. More than 60 peptide drugs have reached the market for the benefit of patients and several hundreds of novel therapeutic peptides are in preclinical and clinical development...