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Marine Drugs, Volume 18, Issue 3

March 2020 - 47 articles

Cover Story: Cone snails produce a fast-acting venom, largely dominated by disulfide-rich conotoxins targeting ion channels. Although disulfide-poor conopeptides are usually minor components, their ability to target key membrane receptors such as GPCRs make them highly valuable as drug lead compounds. From the venom gland transcriptome of Conus miliaris, we report here on the discovery and characterization of two conopressins, which are nonapeptide ligands of the vasopressin/oxytocin receptor family. These novel sequence variants show unusual features, including a charge inversion at the critical position 8. Interestingly, Conopressin-M2 acted as a full agonist at the ZFV2 receptor with low micromolar affinity. Together with the NMR structures of amidated conopressins-M1, -M2, and -G, this study provides novel structure–activity relationship information that may help in the design of more selective ligands. View this paper
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Articles (47)

  • Communication
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,886 Views
10 Pages

Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Jahanyne Analogs as Cell Cycle Arrest Inducers

  • Baijun Ye,
  • Jianmiao Gong,
  • Qiuying Li,
  • Shiqi Bao,
  • Xuemei Zhang,
  • Jing Chen,
  • Qing Meng,
  • Bolin Chen,
  • Peng Jiang and
  • Liang Wang
  • + 1 author

23 March 2020

Jahanyne, a lipopeptide with a unique terminal alkynyl and OEP (2-(1-oxo-ethyl)-pyrrolidine) moiety, exhibits anticancer activity. We synthesized jahanyne and analogs modified at the OEP moiety, employing an α-fluoromethyl ketone (FMK) strategy...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
3,777 Views
17 Pages

23 March 2020

A potent marine toxin, tetrodotoxin (TTX), found in a great variety of marine and some terrestrial species, leaves intriguing questions about its origin and distribution in marine ecosystems. TTX-producing bacteria were found in the cultivable microf...

  • Article
  • Open Access
40 Citations
6,164 Views
15 Pages

Marine Microalgae, Spirulina maxima-Derived Modified Pectin and Modified Pectin Nanoparticles Modulate the Gut Microbiota and Trigger Immune Responses in Mice

  • H.P.S.U. Chandrarathna,
  • T.D. Liyanage,
  • S.L. Edirisinghe,
  • S.H.S. Dananjaya,
  • E.H.T. Thulshan,
  • Chamilani Nikapitiya,
  • Chulhong Oh,
  • Do-Hyung Kang and
  • Mahanama De Zoysa

21 March 2020

This study evaluated the modulation of gut microbiota, immune responses, and gut morphometry in C57BL/6 mice, upon oral administration of S. maxima-derived modified pectin (SmP, 7.5 mg/mL) and pectin nanoparticles (SmPNPs; 7.5 mg/mL). Metagenomics an...

  • Article
  • Open Access
181 Citations
13,936 Views
15 Pages

20 March 2020

This study aims to determine the influence of (1) ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), (2) microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and (3) a combination of ultrasound–microwave-assisted extraction (UMAE) on the yields of fucose-sulphated polysacch...

  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
3,864 Views
10 Pages

20 March 2020

The chemical examination of the marine soft coral Lemnalia sp., collected at the Xisha islands in the South China Sea, resulted in the isolation of four new nardosinane-type sesquiterpenoids, namely clavukoellians G–J (1–4), and one new a...

  • Review
  • Open Access
39 Citations
7,198 Views
28 Pages

Marine Toxins Targeting Kv1 Channels: Pharmacological Tools and Therapeutic Scaffolds

  • Rocio K. Finol-Urdaneta,
  • Aleksandra Belovanovic,
  • Milica Micic-Vicovac,
  • Gemma K. Kinsella,
  • Jeffrey R. McArthur and
  • Ahmed Al-Sabi

20 March 2020

Toxins from marine animals provide molecular tools for the study of many ion channels, including mammalian voltage-gated potassium channels of the Kv1 family. Selectivity profiling and molecular investigation of these toxins have contributed to the d...

  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
5,271 Views
13 Pages

20 March 2020

Red alga dulse possesses a unique xylan, which is composed of a linear β-(1→3)/β-(1→4)-xylosyl linkage. We previously prepared characteristic xylooligosaccharide (DX3, (β-(1→3)-xylosyl-xylobiose)) from dulse. In this stu...

  • Article
  • Open Access
43 Citations
5,827 Views
14 Pages

Antimalarial Peptide and Polyketide Natural Products from the Fijian Marine Cyanobacterium Moorea producens

  • Anne Marie Sweeney-Jones,
  • Kerstin Gagaring,
  • Jenya Antonova-Koch,
  • Hongyi Zhou,
  • Nazia Mojib,
  • Katy Soapi,
  • Jeffrey Skolnick,
  • Case W. McNamara and
  • Julia Kubanek

18 March 2020

A new cyclic peptide, kakeromamide B (1), and previously described cytotoxic cyanobacterial natural products ulongamide A (2), lyngbyabellin A (3), 18E-lyngbyaloside C (4), and lyngbyaloside (5) were identified from an antimalarial extract of the Fij...

  • Review
  • Open Access
245 Citations
16,547 Views
29 Pages

Advanced Technologies for the Extraction of Marine Brown Algal Polysaccharides

  • Ana Dobrinčić,
  • Sandra Balbino,
  • Zoran Zorić,
  • Sandra Pedisić,
  • Danijela Bursać Kovačević,
  • Ivona Elez Garofulić and
  • Verica Dragović-Uzelac

18 March 2020

Over the years, brown algae bioactive polysaccharides laminarin, alginate and fucoidan have been isolated and used in functional foods, cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical industries. The extraction process of these polysaccharides includes several comp...

  • Review
  • Open Access
80 Citations
9,679 Views
22 Pages

18 March 2020

Fucoidans are multifunctional marine macromolecules that are subjected to numerous and various downstream processes during their production. These processes were considered the most important abiotic factors affecting fucoidan chemical skeletons, qua...

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Mar. Drugs - ISSN 1660-3397Creative Common CC BY license