Marine Drugs, Volume 18, Issue 1

The editorial team greatly appreciates the reviewers who have dedicated their considerable time and expertise to the journal’s rigorous editorial process over the past 12 months, regardless of whether the papers are finally published or not [...]

Chitooligosaccharides (COS) have a variety of biological activities due to their positively charged amino groups. Studies have shown that COS have antidiabetic effects, but their molecular mechanism has not been fully elucidated. The present study co...

From the origin of our planet, about 4 [...]

Oxygenated derivatives of fatty acids, collectively called oxylipins, are a highly diverse family of lipoxygenase (LOX) products well described in planktonic diatoms. Here we report the first investigation of these molecules in four benthic diatoms,...

Five new perylenequinone derivatives, altertoxins VIII–XII (1–5), as well as one known compound cladosporol I (6), were isolated from the fermentation broth of the marine-derived fungus Cladosporium sp. KFD33 from a blood cockle from Haik...

The undesired attachment of micro and macroorganisms on water-immersed surfaces, known as marine biofouling, results in severe prevention and maintenance costs (billions €/year) for aquaculture, shipping and other industries that rely on coastal and...

Chitin and its derivative chitosan are popular constituents in wound-treatment technologies due to their nanoscale fibrous morphology and attractive biomedical properties that accelerate healing and reduce scarring. These abundant natural polymers fo...

Very recently, the immunotherapies against cancer, autoimmune diseases, and infection have been feasible and promising. Thus, we have examined the possibility whether or not human gamma delta T cells can be applied for the novel immunotherapies. We p...

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are membrane receptors and play a major role in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. Here, we have investigated the differential expression of nAChR subunits in human breast cancer cell lines and breast epi...

The Asian coastal communities have used the brown seaweeds Fucus vesiculosus and Ascophyllum nodosum since ancient times. Recently, some in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated their abilities in reducing risk factors for metabolic syndrome. H...

Treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains inefficient due to drug resistance and relapse, particularly in patients with FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3)-internal tandem duplication (ITD). Marine-derived natural products have recently been us...

Four novel bioactive tetrahydroanthra-γ-pyrone compounds, shellmycin A–D (1–4), were isolated from the marine Streptomyces sp. shell-016 derived from a shell sediment sample collected from Binzhou Shell Dike Island and Wetland Natio...

Mexico is one of the three areas of the world with the greatest terrestrial and cultural biological diversity. The diversity of Mexican medicinal flora has been studied for a long time and several bioactive compounds have been isolated. The investiga...

Polyelectrolyte nanocomposites rarely reach a stable state and aggregation often occurs. Here, we report the synthesis of nanocomposites for the oral delivery of insulin composed of alginate, dextran sulfate, poly-(ethylene glycol) 4000, poloxamer 18...

The rapid emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens makes an urgent need for discovering novel antimicrobial agents as alternatives to conventional antibiotics. Towards this end, we designed and synthesized a synthetic peptide of 23 amino acids (AAs...

Autophagy (Ancient Greek αὐτόφαγος [autóphagos]—“self-devouring”) is defined as a regulated mechanism of the degradation of unnecessary or dysfunctional cellular components [...]

Nitrogen heterocycles have drawn considerable attention due to of their significant biological activities. The marine fungi residing in extreme environments are among the richest sources of these basic nitrogen-containing secondary metabolites. As on...

This study reports the isolation of two novel cysteine-rich antibacterial peptides, turgencin A and turgencin B, along with their oxidized derivatives, from the Arctic marine colonial ascidian Synoicum turgens. The peptides are post-translationally m...

Gigartina pistillata is a red seaweed common in Figueira da Foz, Portugal. Here, the antitumour potential of G. pistillata carrageenan, with a known variable of the life cycle, the female gametophyte (FG) and tetrasporophyte (T) was evaluated against...

Transient brain ischemia triggers selective neuronal death/loss, especially in vulnerable regions of the brain including the hippocampus. Laminarin, a polysaccharide originating from brown seaweed, has various pharmaceutical properties including an a...

Marine algae represent a prolific source of filamentous fungi for bioprospecting. In continuation of our search for new anticancer leads from fungi derived from the brown alga Fucus vesiculosus, an endophytic Pyrenochaetopsis sp. FVE-001 was selected...

Many marine microorganisms synthesize exopolysaccharides (EPSs), and some of these EPSs have been reported to have potential in different fields. However, the pharmaceutical potentials of marine EPSs are rarely reported. The EPS secreted by the Artic...

ε-poly-l-Lysine (ε-PLL) peptide is a product of the marine bacterium Bacillus subtilis with antibacterial and anticancer activity largely used worldwide as a food preservative. ε-PLL and its synthetic analogue α,&epsilon...

Respiratory exposure to marine phycotoxins is of increasing concern. Inhalation of sea spray aerosols (SSAs), during harmful Karenia brevis and Ostreopsis ovata blooms induces respiratory distress among others. The biogenics hypothesis, however, sugg...

Women are still at high risk of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) virus due to the lack of protection methods under their control, especially in sub-Saharan countries. Polyelectrolyte multilayer smart vaginal films based on chitosan...

Marine organisms are sources of several natural compounds with potential clinical use. However, only a few marine-based pharmaceuticals have been approved for use due to limited knowledge on their biological activities. Here, we identified the functi...

Mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs), maximally absorbed in the wavelength region of 310–360 nm, are widely distributed in algae, phytoplankton and microorganisms, as a class of possible multi-functional compounds. In this work, based on the Web...

The International Symposium on Marine Natural Products (MaNaPro) happened for the first time in 1975 in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland, organized by Professor Ronald H [...]

One of the most widely distributed soft coral species, found especially in shallow waters of the Indo-Pacific region, Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and also the Arctic, is genus Sacrophyton. The total number of species belonging to it was estimated to...

Osmoregulation in phytoplankton is attributed to several highly polar low-molecular-weight metabolites. A widely accepted model considers dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) as the most important and abundant osmotically active metabolite. Using an opt...

The synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by microorganisms recently gained a greater interest due to its potential to produce them in various sizes and morphologies. In this study, for AgNP biosynthesis, we used a new Pseudomonas strain isolated...

We performed a high-content screening (HCS) assay aiming to discover bioactive molecules with proteasome inhibitory activity. By structural elucidation, we identified six compounds purified from soft coral Clavularia flava, which potentiates proteaso...

Macrophages play a fundamental role in the immune system. Depending on the microenvironment stimuli, macrophages can acquire distinct phenotypes characterized with different sets of the markers of their functional activities. Polarization of macropha...

Mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) are water-soluble metabolites, reported to exhibit strong UV-absorbing properties. They have been found in a wide range of marine organisms, especially those that are exposed to extreme levels of sunlight, to prote...

Lissodendrin B is a 2-aminoimidazole alkaloid bearing a (p-hydroxyphenyl) glyoxal moiety that was isolated from the Indonesian sponge Lissodendoryx (Acanthodoryx) fibrosa. We reported the first efficient total synthesis of Lissodendrin B. The precurs...

Alginate oligosaccharides with different degrees of polymerization (DPs) possess diverse physiological activities. Therefore, in recent years, increasing attention has been drawn to the use of enzymes for the preparation of alginate oligosaccharides...

The organisms thriving under extreme conditions better than any other organism living on Earth, fascinate by their hostile growing parameters, physiological features, and their production of valuable bioactive metabolites. This is the case of microor...

Diet-induced obesity has been linked to metabolic disorders such as cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. A factor linking diet to metabolic disorders is oxidative stress, which can damage biomolecules, especially proteins. The present study w...

Natural bioactive compounds with antioxidant activity play remarkable roles in the prevention of reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation. ROS, which are formed by different pathways, have various pathological influences such as DNA damage, carcinogen...

Eight new (1–8) structurally diverse diterpenes featuring five different carbocycles were isolated from the organic extracts of the red alga Sphaerococcus coronopifolius collected from the coastline of the Ionian Sea in Greece. The structures o...

Lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus), the most widely cultivated seahorse in China, has been in short supply because of its important medicinal value; meanwhile, unnatural deaths caused by various diseases (especially enteritis) have limited their pr...

Jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas) is one of the largest cephalopods, and represents an important economic fishery in several regions of the Pacific Ocean, from southern California in the United States to southern Chile. Large and considerable discards of...

Mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) have gained considerable attention as highly active photoprotective candidates for human sunscreens. However, more studies are necessary to evaluate the extraction efficiencies of these metabolites in cosmetic comp...

Three-dimensional porous nanocomposites consisting of gelatin-carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) cross-linked by carboxylic acids biopolymers and monophasic hydroxyapatite (HA) nanostructures were fabricated by lyophilization, for soft-bone-tissue engineer...

In 2019, the scientific and medical community celebrated the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the very first marine-derived drug, Cytarabine, into clinics [...]

The present work proposed a novel therapeutic platform with both neuroprotective and neuroregenerative potential to be used in the treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI). A dual-functioning scaffold for the delivery of the neuroprotective S1R agonist,...

As part of our continuing efforts to discover new bioactive compounds from microbial sources, a reinvestigation of extracts of scaled-up cultures of the marine-derived Streptomyces sp. strain CA-271078 resulted in the isolation and structural elucida...

Quorum quenching (QQ), the enzymatic degradation of N-acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs), has been suggested as a promising strategy to control bacterial diseases. In this study, 10 AHL-degrading bacteria isolated from the intestine of barramundi were i...

Voltage-gated sodium channels (Na_Vs) are membrane proteins that are involved in the generation and propagation of action potentials in neurons. Recently, the structure of a complex made of a tetrodotoxin-sensitive (TTX-s) Na_V subtype with saxitoxin (...

Alginate lyases degrade alginate into oligosaccharides, of which the biological activities have vital roles in various fields. Some alginate lyases contain one or more carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs), which assist the function of the catalytic mo...