Marine Natural Products against Neurological Diseases and Brain Injuries

A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 5841

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Anatomy, Dongguk University College of Medicine, Gyeongju 38066, Republic of Korea
Interests: protein structure and dynamics; protein conformational disorders; drug design; protein–protein interaction; neurodegenerative diseases; molecular modeling
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Guest Editor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh
Interests: bioactive natural products with neuroprotective potentials; molecular neuropharmacology; system pharmacology; functional foods; computational biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bioactive natural products are promising for the development of novel therapeutic agents. Although terrestrial sources have always been given priority over marine sources, the latter have recently received equal attention due to their highly diverse bioactive molecules with unique chemical structure and bioactivity. Marine organisms such as microorganisms, algae, fungi, sponges, cnidarians, and mollusks are abundant in diverse molecules that are primarily synthesized to cope with various environmental stimuli. However, these bioactive compounds have shown numerous pharmacological potentials, including neuroprotective, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and antiproliferative properties. With the growing prevalence of oxidative stress- and inflammation-mediated chronic brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases, and other neurological diseases, natural product researchers and drug designers have been concentrating their attention on the discovery and development of novel therapeutic leads from marine natural products or their skeletons. Many of these compounds modulate various molecular targets of brain-specific biochemical and signaling pathways, suggesting their therapeutic significance in the management of neurological diseases, brain injuries, and tumors.

This Special Issue will cover the isolation and characterization of novel compounds from marine organisms; the bioactivity of already known molecules; structure–activity relationships; and the mechanisms of neuroprotection against various toxic insults representing in vitro and in vivo models of neurodegeneration, brain injury, psychological disorders, neuropathic pain, and tumors. Both original research and review papers are welcome.

Prof. Dr. II Soo Moon
Prof. Dr. Md. Abdul Hannan
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Marine organisms
  • Bioactive natural products
  • Molecular neuropharmacology
  • Neuroprotection
  • Neurodegenerative disorders, ischemic stroke, and acute brain injury
  • Neuropathic pain
  • Psychological disorders
  • Brain tumors

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 4630 KiB  
Article
RKC-B1 Blocks Activation of NF-κB and NLRP3 Signaling Pathways to Suppress Neuroinflammation in LPS-Stimulated Mice
by Man Liu, Ying-Lin Yang, Shan-Shan Zhang, Dong-Ni Liu, Lian-Hua Fang, Guan-Hua Du and Yue-Hua Wang
Mar. Drugs 2021, 19(8), 429; https://doi.org/10.3390/md19080429 - 28 Jul 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2305
Abstract
RKC-B1 is a novel fermentation product obtained from the marine micromonospora FIM02-523A. Thus far, there have been few reports about the pharmacological activity of RKC-B1. In our present study, we investigated the anti-neuroinflammatory effects and the possible mechanism of RKC-B1 in LPS-stimulated mice. [...] Read more.
RKC-B1 is a novel fermentation product obtained from the marine micromonospora FIM02-523A. Thus far, there have been few reports about the pharmacological activity of RKC-B1. In our present study, we investigated the anti-neuroinflammatory effects and the possible mechanism of RKC-B1 in LPS-stimulated mice. After treatment with RKC-B1, RNA-seq transcriptome of the cerebral cortex tissue was conducted to find the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Inflammatory cytokines and proteins were evaluated by ELISA and WB. In RNA-seq analysis, there were 193 genes screened as core genes of RKC-B1 for treatment with neuroinflammation. The significant KEGG enrichment signaling pathways of these core genes were mainly included TNF signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway, NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, NF-κB signaling pathway and others. The corresponding top five KEGG enrichment pathways of three main clusters in PPI network of core genes were closely related to human immune system and immune disease. The results showed that RKC-B1 reduced the levels of pro-inflammatory factors (IL-6, IL-1β, MCP-1, and ICAM-1) and the expression of COX2 in cerebral cortex tissue. Additionally, we found that the anti-neuroinflammation activity of RKC-B1 might be related to suppress activating of NF-κB and NLRP3/cleaved caspase-1 signaling pathways. The current findings suggested that RKC-B1 might be a promising anti-neuroinflammatory agent. Full article
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18 pages, 3922 KiB  
Article
Lyophilization Serves as an Effective Strategy for Drug Development of the α9α10 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Antagonist α-Conotoxin GeXIVA[1,2]
by Zhiguo Li, Xiaolu Han, Xiaoxuan Hong, Xianfu Li, Jing Gao, Hui Zhang and Aiping Zheng
Mar. Drugs 2021, 19(3), 121; https://doi.org/10.3390/md19030121 - 25 Feb 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2580
Abstract
α-Conotoxin GeXIVA[1,2] is a highly potent and selective antagonist of the α9α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subtype. It has the advantages of strong efficacy, no tolerance, and no effect on motor function, which has been expected help patients with neuropathic pain. However, drug [...] Read more.
α-Conotoxin GeXIVA[1,2] is a highly potent and selective antagonist of the α9α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subtype. It has the advantages of strong efficacy, no tolerance, and no effect on motor function, which has been expected help patients with neuropathic pain. However, drug development for clinical use is severely limited owing to its instability. Lyophilization is applied as the most preferred method to solve this problem. The prepared lyophilized powder is characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), powder X-ray diffractometry (PXRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Molecular simulation is also used to explore the internal distribution and forces formed in the system. The analgesic effect on paclitaxel-induced neuropathic pain following single and 14-day repeated administrations are evaluated by the von Frey test and the tail-flick test. Trehalose combined with mannitol in a ratio of 1:1 is employed as the excipients in the determined formulation, where trehalose acts as the stabilizer and mannitol acts as the bulking agent, according to the results of DSC, PXRD, and FTIR. Both GeXIVA[1,2] (API) and GeXIVA[1,2] lyophilized powder (formulation) could produce stable analgesic effect. These results indicated that GeXIVA[1,2] lyophilized powder could improve the stability and provide an effective strategy to push it into clinical use as a new analgesic drug. Full article
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