Bioactive Compounds from Coral Reef Organisms

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 January 2020) | Viewed by 22987

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry, Department of Physics, University of Trento, via Sommarive 14, 38123 Povo-Trento, Italy
Interests: antimicrobial agents; natural products chemistry; liquid chromatography; NMR analysis; mass spectrometry; synthesis of biologically active molecules; structure-based drug design; medicinal chemistry
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Although coral reefs occupy less than 0.1% of the world’s ocean surface in tropical and subtropical zones, we know that they provide habitat for 25% of all marine organisms. This highly bio-diverse ecosystem presents a number of species interacting with the environment and with each other in a competition for life resources including food, space and sunlight. The invertebrates, associated bacteria and marine plants living in this habitat have proven to be the source of secondary metabolites with peculiar molecular structures and mostly showing remarkable biological activity that make them promising candidates for new drug discovery.

This Special Issue will report results on coral reef natural products involved at any level of the production of drugs, from their isolation to structural characterization, from chemical synthesis to preliminary biological investigation and more advanced pharmacological evaluation. I would like to invite you to submit articles on your current research on this topic, as well as critical overview works of the existing literature.

Prof. Ines Mancini
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • coral reef natural products 
  • marine metabolites
  • bioactivities 
  • structural elucidation 
  • organic synthesis 
  • therapeutic lead compounds

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 3056 KiB  
Article
Fragilides U–W: New 11,20-Epoxybriaranes from the Sea Whip Gorgonian Coral Junceella fragilis
by Tung-Pin Su, Chien-Han Yuan, Yi-Ming Jhu, Bo-Rong Peng, Zhi-Hong Wen, Yu-Jen Wu, Tung-Ying Wu, Hong-Wen Liu and Ping-Jyun Sung
Mar. Drugs 2019, 17(12), 706; https://doi.org/10.3390/md17120706 - 15 Dec 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2406
Abstract
Three new 11,20-epoxybriaranes—fragilides U–W (13), as well as two known metabolites, junceellonoid D (4) and junceellin (5), were obtained from the octocoral Junceella fragilis. The structures of briaranes 13 were elucidated by [...] Read more.
Three new 11,20-epoxybriaranes—fragilides U–W (13), as well as two known metabolites, junceellonoid D (4) and junceellin (5), were obtained from the octocoral Junceella fragilis. The structures of briaranes 13 were elucidated by spectroscopic methods and briaranes 3 and 5 displayed inhibition effects on inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) release from RAW264.7. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactive Compounds from Coral Reef Organisms)
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8 pages, 3127 KiB  
Article
New 1,4-Dienonesteroids from the Octocoral Dendronephthya sp.
by Thanh-Hao Huynh, Pei-Chin Chen, San-Nan Yang, Feng-Yu Lin, Tung-Pin Su, Lo-Yun Chen, Bo-Rong Peng, Chiung-Chin Hu, You-Ying Chen, Zhi-Hong Wen, Tung-Ying Wu and Ping-Jyun Sung
Mar. Drugs 2019, 17(9), 530; https://doi.org/10.3390/md17090530 - 11 Sep 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2914
Abstract
Two new steroids, dendronesterones D (1) and E (2), featuring with 1,4-dienone moiety, along with three known steroids, methyl 3-oxochola-4,22-diene-24-oate (3), 5α,8α-epidioxy-24(S)- methylcholesta-6,22-dien-3β-ol (4), and 5α,8α-epidioxy-24(S)-methylcholesta-6,9(11),22-trien-3β-ol (5), were isolated [...] Read more.
Two new steroids, dendronesterones D (1) and E (2), featuring with 1,4-dienone moiety, along with three known steroids, methyl 3-oxochola-4,22-diene-24-oate (3), 5α,8α-epidioxy-24(S)- methylcholesta-6,22-dien-3β-ol (4), and 5α,8α-epidioxy-24(S)-methylcholesta-6,9(11),22-trien-3β-ol (5), were isolated from an octocoral Dendronephthya sp. The structures of steroids 1 and 2 were elucidated by using spectroscopic methods and steroid 1 was found to exhibit significant in vitro anti-inflammatory activity in lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-induced RAW264.7 macrophage cells by inhibiting the expression of the iNOS protein. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactive Compounds from Coral Reef Organisms)
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19 pages, 2140 KiB  
Article
Bioactive Compounds Isolated from Marine Bacterium Vibrio neocaledonicus and Their Enzyme Inhibitory Activities
by Isabel Gómez-Betancur, Jianping Zhao, Lin Tan, Chang Chen, Ge Yu, Paola Rey-Suárez and Lina Preciado
Mar. Drugs 2019, 17(7), 401; https://doi.org/10.3390/md17070401 - 8 Jul 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4202
Abstract
Marine organisms are recognized as a source of compounds with interesting biological activities. Vibrio neocaledonicus has been reported on for its high effectiveness against corrosion in metals but it has been little studied for its chemical and biological activities. In this study, four [...] Read more.
Marine organisms are recognized as a source of compounds with interesting biological activities. Vibrio neocaledonicus has been reported on for its high effectiveness against corrosion in metals but it has been little studied for its chemical and biological activities. In this study, four compounds were isolated from V. neocaledonicus: indole (1); 1H-indole-3-carboxaldehyde (2); 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (3) and Cyclo (-Pro-Tyr) (4); using a bioassay-guided method, since in a previous study it was found that the ethyl acetate extract was active on the enzymes acetylcholinesterase (AChE), alpha-glucosidase (AG) and xanthine oxidase (XO). The inhibitory activities of the three compounds against AChE, AG and XO was also evaluated. In addition, the enzymatic inhibitory activity of indole to the toxins from the venom of Bothrops asper was tested. Results showed that indole exhibited strong inhibitory activity to AG (IC50 = 18.65 ± 1.1 μM), to AChE, and XO (51.3% and 44.3% at 50 μg/mL, respectively). 1H-indole-3-carboxaldehyde displayed strong activity to XO (IC50 = 13.36 ± 0.39 μM). 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde showed moderate activity to XO (50.75% at 50 μg/mL) and weak activity to AChE (25.7% at 50 μg/mL). Furthermore, indole showed a significant in vitro inhibition to the coagulant effect induced by 1.0 μg of venom. The findings were supported by molecular docking. This is the first comprehensive report on the chemistry of V. neocaledonicus and the bioactivity of its metabolites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactive Compounds from Coral Reef Organisms)
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11 pages, 1455 KiB  
Communication
Circumdatin-Aspyrone Conjugates from the Coral-Associated Aspergillus ochraceus LCJ11-102
by Yaqin Fan, Yalin Zhou, Yuqi Du, Yi Wang, Peng Fu and Weiming Zhu
Mar. Drugs 2019, 17(7), 400; https://doi.org/10.3390/md17070400 - 6 Jul 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2979
Abstract
Ochrazepines A−D (14), four new conjugates dimerized from 2-hydroxycircumdatin C (5) and aspyrone (6) by a nucleophilic addition to epoxide, were isolated from the fermentation broth of the coral-associated Aspergillus ochraceus strain LCJ11-102. Their structures [...] Read more.
Ochrazepines A−D (14), four new conjugates dimerized from 2-hydroxycircumdatin C (5) and aspyrone (6) by a nucleophilic addition to epoxide, were isolated from the fermentation broth of the coral-associated Aspergillus ochraceus strain LCJ11-102. Their structures including absolute configurations were determined based on spectroscopic analysis and chemical methods. Compounds 14 were also obtained by the semisynthesis from a nucleophilic addition of 2-hydroxycircumdatin C (5) to aspyrone (6). New compound 1 exhibited cytotoxic activity against 10 human cancer cell lines while new compounds 2 and 4 selectively inhibited U251 (human glioblastoma cell line) and compound 3 was active against A673 (human rhabdomyoma cell line), U87 (human glioblastoma cell line), and Hep3B (human liver cancer cell line) with IC50 (half maximal inhibitory concentration) values of 2.5–11.3 μM among 26 tested human cancer cell lines. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactive Compounds from Coral Reef Organisms)
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Review

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46 pages, 14252 KiB  
Review
Coral and Coral-Associated Microorganisms: A Prolific Source of Potential Bioactive Natural Products
by Vo Thanh Sang, Ton That Huu Dat, Le Ba Vinh, Le Canh Viet Cuong, Phung Thi Thuy Oanh, Hoang Ha, Young Ho Kim, Hoang Le Tuan Anh and Seo Young Yang
Mar. Drugs 2019, 17(8), 468; https://doi.org/10.3390/md17080468 - 11 Aug 2019
Cited by 62 | Viewed by 9375
Abstract
Marine invertebrates and their associated microorganisms are rich sources of bioactive compounds. Among them, coral and its associated microorganisms are promising providers of marine bioactive compounds. The present review provides an overview of bioactive compounds that are produced by corals and coral-associated microorganisms, [...] Read more.
Marine invertebrates and their associated microorganisms are rich sources of bioactive compounds. Among them, coral and its associated microorganisms are promising providers of marine bioactive compounds. The present review provides an overview of bioactive compounds that are produced by corals and coral-associated microorganisms, covering the literature from 2010 to March 2019. Accordingly, 245 natural products that possess a wide range of potent bioactivities, such as anti-inflammatory, cytotoxic, antimicrobial, antivirus, and antifouling activities, among others, are described in this review. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactive Compounds from Coral Reef Organisms)
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