Modified Nucleosides and Nucleotides of Marine Origin
A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2021) | Viewed by 345
Special Issue Editor
2. Inter-University Center for the Promotion of the 3Rs Principles in Teaching and Research (Centro 3R), Pisa, Italy
Interests: natural products in biomedicine; inflammation; cell molecular biology of adult stem cells and of marine organisms; tissue engineering
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Marine organisms are an inexhaustible source of biologically active natural products. Since all forms of life are in constant competition for food, space and reproduction, a vast range of biologically active compounds in the marine universe are endowed with strong cytotoxic or metabolism-altering effects to dissuade predators and/or opportunistic organisms as well as to gain the upper hand on competitors.
An important class of compounds interfering with cellular metabolic pathways essential to life is that of unusual nucleosides and nucleotides. Natural nucleosides and nucleotides are fundamental components of nucleic acid macromolecules and are involved in many biological processes. Microorganisms as well as marine organisms, with sponges being of particular interest, are capable of producing unusual bioactive nucleosides.
Modified nucleosides synthesized by microorganisms and capable of inhibiting the growth of other microorganisms are named nucleoside antibiotics, able to block various bacterial metabolic pathways in which natural nucleosides are involved. However, most of the unusual nucleosides, nucleotides and intercalators exert their activity by interfering with DNA and/or RNA synthesis and metabolism, also providing these molecules with potent antiviral, anticancer, immunomodulating and antiparasitic activities.
This Special Issue aims to focus on recent, high-quality research and to collect outstanding reviews of the literature on the still hot topic of unusual nucleosides and derivatives produced by marine organisms with promising pharmaceutical potential for the human health.
Prof. Dr. Sonia Scarfì
Guest Editor
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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-blind 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
- Antiretroviral activity
- DNA polymerase inhibition
- Reverse transcriptase inhibition
- Natural purine and pyrimidine analogues
- Pyrimidine and purine arabinosides
- Nucleosides with unusual sugar moieties
- Mutagenic agents
- DNA intercalating agents
