Aquatic Organisms Models Dedicated to Disease
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 May 2026 | Viewed by 1432
Special Issue Editors
2. Department of Surgery, The Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Interests: immunology; structural RNA; cellular cytoskeleton; macrophages
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: embryo development; cell cycle; gene regulation; cancer; stem cells; gonads; genetic diseases
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Aquatic organisms are an irreplaceable source of medicinal drugs and therapeutics, a perfect model system and indicator for many human diseases, and often also a source of remedies for environmental pollutants. As an example, for several decades, the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis has been used for human pregnancy tests. Between the 1940s and 1960s, thousands of frogs were imported to the USA by pharmaceutical companies and injected with pregnant women’s urine. Xenopus frogs are the perfect human ciliary-based model for kidney disease, and the Xenopus sex reversal is an excellent indicator of water contamination with endocrine disruptors that mimic human sex hormones and are present in the majority of cosmetics and everyday products. Zebrafish and squid eyes are a model for human ocular diseases, such as glaucoma, cataracts, photoreceptor degeneration, and cornea and retina disorders. The Atlantic horseshoe crab’s (Limulus polyphemus) blue blood has been the source of limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) and has been used to test the bacterial contamination of vaccines and medical equipment. Over the past 30 years, scientists have identified over 20,000 novel biochemical compounds from aquatic organisms, and dozens have been tested in clinical trials. Cytarabine and vidarabine isolated from Caribbean sponges are used to treat leukemia and lymphoma, and systematic herpes virus infections, respectively. Ziconotide, a powerful analgesic drug, is isolated from the cone snail, and trabectedin (Yondelis), a marine alkaloid isolated from the tunicate, is used to treat advanced soft-tissue sarcoma and ovarian cancer.
For this Special Issue, we invite research studies and review articles on the recent progress in aquatic organisms as a source of medication for human diseases. In addition, papers on environmental pollutant markers that act as sources of anti-pollutant compounds are also welcome.
Prof. Dr. Malgorzata Kloc
Prof. Dr. Jacek Z. Kubiak
Guest Editors
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