Marine Drugs, Volume 21, Issue 12

The secondary metabolites of marine fungi with rich chemical diversity and biological activity are an important and exciting target for natural product research. This study aimed to investigate the fungal community in Quanzhou Bay, Fujian, and identi...

Six undescribed capnosane-type macrocyclic diterpenes sarcocrassolins A–F (1–6) and one related known analog pavidolide D (7) were isolated from Sarcophyton crassocaule, a soft coral collected off the Nansha Islands, in the South China Se...

Brevetoxins (BTXs) constitute a family of lipid-soluble toxic cyclic polyethers mainly produced by Karenia brevis, which is the main vector for a foodborne syndrome known as neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP) in humans. To prevent health risks asso...

Decreased adult neurogenesis, or the gradual depletion of neural stem cells in adult neurogenic niches, is considered a hallmark of brain aging. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the intricate relationship between aging, adult neurogen...

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is a signaling molecule endogenously produced within mammals’ cells that plays an important role in inflammation, exerting anti-inflammatory effects. In this view, the research has shown a growing interest in identifying natura...

Cancer cells grown in 3D spheroid cultures are considered more predictive for clinical efficacy. The marine natural product dragmacidin D induces apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468 triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) spheroids within 24 h of tre...

Inflammatory diseases caused by air pollution, especially from particulate matter (PM) exposure, have increased daily. Accordingly, attention to treatment or prevention for these inflammatory diseases has grown. Natural products have been recognized...

Marine polychaetes represent an extremely rich and underexplored source of novel families of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). The rapid development of next generation sequencing technologies and modern bioinformatics approaches allows us to apply them...

Many compounds produced by cyanobacteria act as serine protease inhibitors, such as the tetrapeptides aeruginosins (Aer), which are found widely distributed. The structural diversity of Aer is intriguingly high. However, the genetic basis of this rem...

A mathematical concept, n-tuples are originally applied to medicinal chemistry, especially with the creation of scaffold diversity inspired by the hybridisation of different commercial drugs with cytarabine, a synthetic arabinonucleoside derived from...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancer types worldwide. Chemotherapy is toxic to normal cells, and combinatory treatment with natural well-tolerated products is being explored. Some omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) an...

Ionizing radiation (IR) triggers an overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS), disrupting the normal function of both immune and metabolic systems, leading to inflammation and metabolic disturbances. To address the pressing requirement for prot...

The fungal strain BC17 was isolated from sediments collected in the intertidal zone of the inner Bay of Cadiz and characterized as Emericellopsis maritima. On the basis of the one strain–many compounds (OSMAC) approach, four new eremophilane-ty...

Marine macroalgae (seaweeds) are important primary global producers, with a wide distribution in oceans around the world from polar to tropical regions. Most of these species are exposed to variable environmental conditions, such as abiotic (e.g., li...

A sulfated polysaccharide (AG) was extracted and isolated from the sea cucumber H. fuscopunctata, consisting of GlcNAc, GalNAc, Gal, Fuc and lacking any uronic acid residues. Importantly, several chemical depolymerization methods were used to elucida...

Six previously undescribed cytosporone derivatives (phomotones A-E (1–5) and phomotone F (13)), two new spiro-alkanol phombistenes A-B (14–15), and seven known analogs (6–12) were isolated from the mangrove endophytic fungus Phomops...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an invalidating chronic autoimmune disorder characterized by joint inflammation and progressive bone damage. Dietary intervention is an important component in the treatment of RA to mitigate oxidative stress, a major path...

Microalgae are recognized as a relevant source of bioactive compounds. Among these bioactive products, lipids, mainly glycolipids, have been shown to present immunomodulatory properties with the potential to mitigate chronic inflammation. This study...

Heterologous biosynthesis has become an effective means to activate fungal silent biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) and efficiently utilize fungal genetic resources. Herein, thirteen labdane diterpene derivatives, including five undescribed ones name...

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) found within cancer tissue play a pivotal role in its resistance to therapy and its potential to metastasize, contributing to elevated mortality rates among patients. Significant strides in understanding the molecular foundat...

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory disease caused b a special type of coronavirus called MERS-CoV. In the search for effective substances against the MERS-CoV main protease, we looked into compounds from brown algae, known...

Alginate-based materials have gained significant attention in the medical industry due to their biochemical properties. In this article, we aimed to synthesize Cotton–Alginate–Copper Composite Materials (COT-Alg⁽⁻⁾Cu⁽²⁺⁾). The main...

Resistomycin is a natural antibiotic related to quinone that has been shown to exhibit robust antitumor activity. To further characterize the mechanistic basis for such activity, human colorectal cancer (CRC) cells were selected as a model to explore...

Muscle atrophy is a complex physiological condition caused by a variety of reasons, including muscle disuse, aging, malnutrition, chronic diseases, immobilization, and hormonal imbalance. Beyond its effect on physical appearance, this condition signi...

Aberrantly high dietary cholesterol intake and intestinal cholesterol uptake lead to dyslipidemia, one of the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Based on previous studies, laminarin, a polysaccharide found in brown algae, has hypolipide...

Epigenetic modifications, mainly aberrant DNA methylation, have been shown to silence the expression of genes involved in epigenetic diseases, including cancer suppression genes. Almost all conventional cancer therapeutic agents, such as the DNA hypo...

The growing understanding and knowledge of the potential of marine species, as well as the application of “blue biotechnology” have been motivating new innovative solutions in cosmetics. It is widely noted that that marine species are imp...

The Bouguer–Lambert–Beer (BLB) law serves as the fundamental basis for the spectrophotometric determination of pigment content in microalgae. Although it has been observed that the applicability of the BLB law is compromised by the light...

This work deals with the formulation of natural cosmetics enriched with antioxidant fractions from the ultrasound treatment (US) of the brown seaweed Saccharina latissima. The challenge was the development of a cosmetic matrix without jeopardizing th...

Progressive articular surface degradation during arthritis causes ongoing pain and hyperalgesia that lead to the development of functional disability. TRPA1 channel significantly contributes to the activation of sensory neurons that initiate neurogen...

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection causes tuberculosis (TB) and has been a long-standing public-health threat. It is urgent that we discover novel antitubercular agents to manage the increased incidence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) or ext...

The majority of natural products utilized to treat a diverse array of human conditions and diseases are derived from terrestrial sources. In recent years, marine ecosystems have proven to be a valuable resource of diverse natural products that are ge...

R-type lectins are a widespread group of sugar-binding proteins found in nearly all domains of life, characterized by the presence of a carbohydrate-binding domain that adopts a β-trefoil fold. Mytilectins represent a recently described subgroup...

A Chitosan is a copolymer of N-acetyl-D-glucose amine and D-glucose amine that can be easily produced. It is a polymer that is widely utilized to create nanoparticles (NPs) with specific properties for applications in a wide range of human activities...

Marine sponges are highly efficient in removing organic pollutants and their cultivation, adjacent to fish farms, is increasingly considered as a strategy for improving seawater quality. Moreover, these invertebrates produce a plethora of bioactive m...

The inherent self-repair abilities of the body often fall short when it comes to addressing injuries in soft tissues like skin, nerves, and cartilage. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine have concentrated their research efforts on creating n...

Echinoderms, such as sea cucumbers, have the remarkable property of changing the stiffness of their dermis according to the surrounding chemical environments. When sea cucumber dermal specimens are constantly strained, stress decays exponentially wit...

Parasitic diseases still compromise human health. Some of the currently available therapeutic drugs have limitations considering their adverse effects, questionable efficacy, and long treatment, which have encouraged drug resistance. There is an urge...

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of low-molecular-weight fish collagen (valine-glycine-proline-hydroxyproline-glycine-proline-alanine-glycine; LMWCP) on H₂O₂- or LPS-treated primary chondrocytes and monoiodoacetate (MIA)-indu...

The discovery of new highly effective anticancer drugs with few side effects is a challenge for drug development research. Natural or synthetic anticancer peptides (ACPs) represent a new generation of anticancer agents with high selectivity and speci...

A total of 16 novel carboxymethyl chitosan derivatives bearing quinoline groups in four classes were prepared by different synthetic methods. Their chemical structures were confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nuclear magnetic...

Chitin/chitosan and collagen are two of the most important bioactive compounds, with applications in the pharmaceutical, veterinary, nutraceutical, cosmetic, biomaterials, and other industries. When extracted from non-edible parts of fish and shellfi...

This study was conducted to estimate the effectiveness of marine-derived resources for treating specific diseases, as well as identify the most effective methods for applying such resources in therapeutic applications. Bibliographic databases (PubMed...

Seaweed extracts and their specific polysaccharides are widely known for their ability to act as reducing and capping agents during nanoparticle synthesis. Their application is highly favored in green synthesis methods, owing to their eco-friendlines...

Four new mono- and trisulfated triterpene penta- and tetraosides, djakonoviosides C₁ (1), D₁ (2), E₁ (3), and F₁ (4) were isolated from the Far Eastern sea cucumber Cucumaria djakonovi (Cucumariidae, Dendrochirotida), along with six known glycosides...

In this work, we extracted chitosan from marine amphipods associated with aquaculture facilities and tested its use in crop protection. The obtained chitosan was 2.5 ± 0.3% of initial ground amphipod dry weight. The chemical nature of chitosan...

Ascomylactam C (AsC) is a new 13-membered-ring macrocyclic alkaloid, which was first isolated and identified in 2019 from the secondary metabolites of the mangrove endophytic fungus Didymella sp. CYSK-4 in the South China Sea. AsC has been found to h...

Microbial life present in the marine environment has to be able to adapt to rapidly changing and often extreme conditions. This makes these organisms a putative source of commercially interesting compounds since adaptation provides different biochemi...