Chemical Diversity and Therapeutic Potentials of Marine Invertebrates
A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Pharmacology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2026 | Viewed by 1479
Editors
Interests: marine natural products; protein and peptide chemistry; computational techniques; bioguided fractionation; ethnopharmacology; drug discovery
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Marine invertebrates represent one of the most diverse and chemically rich groups in marine ecosystems, encompassing major taxonomic phyla such as Porifera, Cnidaria, Mollusca, Arthropoda, Echinodermata. Owing to their unique ecological adaptations, marine invertebrates and their associated microorganisms are prolific sources of structurally diverse and biologically active natural products. Numerous invertebrate-derived secondary metabolites with therapeutic potential, including anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and neuroactive activities, have been reported, many featuring unprecedented chemical scaffolds and serving as valuable drug leads. Advances in metabolomics, genomics, and bioinformatics have further accelerated their discovery.
This Special Issue aims to highlight recent advances in the chemical diversity and therapeutic potential of marine invertebrates. We invite academic and industrial researchers to submit original research articles, reviews, and communications addressing natural product discovery and structure elucidation, biological and pharmacological evaluation, metabolomics, biosynthesis and genome mining, and symbiotic microorganism-associated natural products.
We believe that this Special Issue will provide a timely platform to advance our understanding of marine invertebrate natural products and to stimulate further research toward the discovery of new marine-derived therapeutic agents.
Dr. Maria Orfanoudaki
Dr. Ji-yeon Hwang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- invertebrate-derived natural products
- secondary metabolites
- computational techniques
- chemotaxonomy
- biological activity
- metabolomic studies
- symbiotic microorganisms
- chemical diversity
- structure–activity relationships (SARs)
- marine invertebrates
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
