Marine Drugs, Volume 19, Issue 12

Microalgae are excellent biological factories for high-value products and contain biofunctional carotenoids. Carotenoids are a group of natural pigments with high value in social production and human health. They have been widely used in food additiv...

From the marine-derived fungus Penicillium sumatrense (Trichocomaceae), a pair of enantiomers [(+)-1 and (−)-1] were isolated with identical 1D NMR data to drazepinone, which was originally reported to have a trisubstituted naphthofuroazepinone...

Chemical investigation of the ethyl acetate extract from the marine-derived Streptomyces sp. isolate B1848 resulted in three new isoquinolinequinone derivatives, the mansouramycins E–G (1a–3a), in addition to the previously reported manso...

Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL)-induced oxidative injury in vascular endothelial cells is crucial for the progression of cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis. Several flavonoids have been shown cardiovascular protective effect...

α9-containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) have been shown to play critical roles in neuropathic pain. The α-conotoxin (α-CTx) RgIA and its analog RgIA4 were identified as the most selective inhibitor of α9&alpha...

Vibrio vulnificus is a Gram-negative pathogenic bacterium that causes serious infections in humans and requires iron for growth. A clinical isolate, V. vulnificus M2799, secretes a catecholate siderophore, vulnibactin, that captures ferric ions from...

Solid phase microextraction (SPME) coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was employed for the headspace determination of the volatile organic fraction emitted by two of the most common Mediterranean demosponges, Ircinia variabilis a...

A marine bacterial strain was isolated from seawater and characterized for it beneficial probiotic effects using zebrafish as a model system. The strain was identified by morphological, physiological, biochemical, and phylogenetic analyses. The strai...

Alginate is a natural polysaccharide that typically originates from various species of algae. Due to its low cost, good biocompatibility, and rapid ionic gelation, the alginate hydrogel has become a good option of bioink source for 3D bioprinting. Ho...

α-Conotoxins GI and MI belong to the 3/5 subfamily of α-conotoxins and potently inhibit muscular nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). To date, no 3/4- or 3/6-subfamily α-conotoxins have been reported to inhibit muscular nAChRs. In the present...

Recent explorations of tool-like alginate lyases have been focused on their oligosaccharide-yielding properties and corresponding mechanisms, whereas most were reported as endo-type with α-L-guluronate (G) preference. Less is known about the &b...

Microalgal cells serve as solar-powered factories that produce pharmaceuticals, recombinant proteins (vaccines and drugs), and valuable natural byproducts that possess medicinal properties. The main advantages of microalgae as cell factories can be s...

The influence of the structural features of carrageenan on the functional properties of the films was studied. The carrageenans and chitosan films, as well as three-layer films containing a polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) of the two, were prepared. The...

Fucoidans are sulfated, complex, fucose-rich polymers found in brown seaweeds. Fucoidans have been shown to have multiple bioactivities, including anti-inflammatory effects, and are known to inhibit inflammatory processes via a number of pathways suc...

Three novel cyclic hexapeptides, sclerotides C–E (1–3), and a new lipodepsipeptide, scopularide I (4), together with a known cyclic hexapeptide sclerotide A (5), were isolated from fermented rice cultures of a soft coral-derived fungus: A...

The microalgae Phaeodactylum tricornutum (PT) contains valuable nutrients such as proteins, polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 PUFA), particularly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and some docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), carotenoids such as fucoxanthin...

High-throughput screening of the NatureBank marine extract library (n = 7616) using a phenotypic assay for the parasitic nematode Haemonchus contortus identified an active extract derived from the Australian marine sponge Citronia sp. Bioassay-guided...

In this study, the effects of a polysaccharide derived from Laminaria japonica (LJP) on obesity were investigated in mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). LJP significantly attenuated obesity-related features, lowering serum triglycerides, glucose, total c...

Chitosan is one of the most studied natural origin polymers for biomedical applications. This review focuses on the potential of chitosan in localized antimicrobial therapy to address the challenges of current rising antimicrobial resistance. Due to...

Saxitoxins (STXs) are a family of potent neurotoxins produced naturally by certain species of phytoplankton and cyanobacteria which are extremely toxic to mammalian nervous systems. The accumulation of STXs in bivalve molluscs can significantly impac...

Four new triterpene disulfated glycosides, chitonoidosides E₁ (1), F (2), G (3), and H (4), were isolated from the Far-Eastern sea cucumber Psolus chitonoides and collected near Bering Island (Commander Islands) at depths of 100–150 m. Among th...

Marine natural compounds, containing rare and enzymatically-modified monosaccharide residues [...]

Arachidonic acid (ARA), an omega-6 (ω-6) polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), is involved in the development and maintenance of renal functions, whereas docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is an omega-3 (ω-3) PUFA that has anti-inflammatory effects...

Chronic exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) is a major cause of skin aging. The aim of the present study was to determine the photoprotective effect of a 30% ethanol extract of Eisenia bicyclis (Kjellman) Setchell (EEB) against UVB-induced skin aging. By...

In the course of our continuing efforts to identify bioactive secondary metabolites from Red Sea marine sponges, we have investigated the sponge Hemimycale sp. The cytotoxic fraction of the organic extract of the sponge afforded three new compounds,...

Recently, there has been emerging interest in various natural products with skin protective effects as they are recognized as safe and efficient. Microalgae have developed chemical defense systems to protect themselves against oxidative stress caused...

Lectins are proteins with a remarkably high affinity and specificity for carbohydrates. Many organisms naturally produce them, including animals, plants, fungi, protists, bacteria, archaea, and viruses. The present report focuses on lectins produced...

Mangrove actinomycetia are considered one of the promising sources for discovering novel biologically active compounds. Traditional bioactivity- and/or taxonomy-based methods are inefficient and usually result in the re-discovery of known metabolites...

Five undescribed harziane-type diterpene derivatives, namely harzianol K (1), harzianol L (4), harzianol M (5), harzianol N (6), harzianol O (7), along with two known compounds, hazianol J (2) and harzianol A (3) were isolated from the deep-sea sedim...

Phytoplankton rely on bioactive zwitterionic and highly polar small metabolites with osmoregulatory properties to compensate changes in the salinity of the surrounding seawater. Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is a main representative of this class...

Seaweeds are considered healthy and sustainable food. Although their consumption is modest in Western countries, the demand for seaweed in food markets is increasing in Europe. Each seaweed species has unique nutritional and functional features. The...

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major human health concern. The pathogen responsible for COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), invades its host through the interaction of its spike (S) protein with a host cell receptor, a...

While complex lipids of seaweeds are known to display important phytochemical properties, their full potential is yet to be explored. This review summarizes the findings of a systematic survey of scientific publications spanning over the years 2000 t...

Extracts of the mantle and viscera of the Indo-Pacific nudibranchs Goniobranchus aureopurpureus and Goniobranchus sp. 1 afforded 11 new diterpenoids (1–11), all of which possess a tetracyclic spongian-16-one scaffold with extensive oxidation at...

Extreme environments are hostile for most organisms, but such habitats represent suitable settings to be inhabited by specialized microorganisms. A marine shallow-water hydrothermal vent field is located offshore in northeast Taiwan, near the shallow...

Marine biofouling is a natural process that represents major economic, environmental, and health concerns. Some booster biocides have been used in biofouling control, however, they were found to accumulate in environmental compartments, showing negat...

The growing applications of tissue engineering technologies warrant the search and development of biocompatible materials with an appropriate strength and elastic moduli. Here, we have extensively studied a collagenous membrane (GSCM) separated from...

Fucoidans are sulfated heteropolysaccharides found in the cell walls of brown seaweeds (Phaeophyceae) and in some marine invertebrates. Generally, fucoidans are composed of significant amounts of L-fucose and sulfate groups, and lesser amounts of ara...

Sunscreen and sunblock are crucial skincare products to prevent photoaging and photocarcinogenesis through the addition of chemical filters to absorb or block ultraviolet (UV) radiation. However, several sunscreen and sunblock ingredients, mostly UV...

Lipids are one of the primary metabolites of microalgae and cyanobacteria, which enrich their utility in the pharmaceutical, feed, cosmetic, and chemistry sectors. This work describes the isolation, structural elucidation, and the antibiotic and anti...

Bovine bone is rich in collagen and is a good material for collagen peptide preparation. Although thermolysin-like proteases (TLPs) have been applied in different fields, the potential of TLPs in preparing bioactive collagen peptides has rarely been...

Brown algae of the Family Dictyotaceae produce an array of structurally diverse terpenoids, whose biomedical potential in the anti-inflammatory area has been scarcely explored. Herein, the chemical study of the alga Rugulopteryx okamurae has led to t...

The genus Callyspongia (Callyspongiidae) encompasses a group of demosponges including 261 described species, of which approximately 180 have been accepted after taxonomic reviews. The marine organisms of Callyspongia are distributed in tropical ecosy...

Floridean starch and floridoside are the main storage carbohydrates of red algae. However, their complete metabolic pathways and the origin, function, and regulatory mechanism of their pathway genes have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we i...

Two cell-wall-associated polysaccharides were isolated and purified from the deep-sea marine bacterium Devosia submarina KMM 9415^T, purified by ultracentrifugation and enzymatic treatment, separated by chromatographic techniques, and studied by sugar...

Peloids have been used for therapeutic purposes since time immemorial, mainly in the treatment of locomotor system pathologies and dermatology. Their effects are attributed to their components, i.e., to the properties and action of mineral waters, cl...

Porifera, commonly referred to as marine sponges, are acknowledged as major producers of marine natural products (MNPs). Sponges of the genus Phorbas have attracted much attention over the years. They are widespread in all continents, and several str...

C1q domain-containing (C1qDC) proteins are a group of biopolymers involved in immune response as pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) in a lectin-like manner. A new protein MkC1qDC from the hemolymph plasma of Modiolus kurilensis bivalve mollusk wide...

The collagen proteins family is sought-after in the pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food industries for various biotechnological applications. The most abundant sources of collagen are pigs and cows, but due to religious restrictions and possible dis...

Toxic crabs of the family Xanthidae contain saxitoxins (STXs) and/or tetrodotoxin (TTX), but the toxin ratio differs depending on their habitat. In the present study, to clarify within reef variations in the toxin profile of xanthid crabs, we collect...