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Bioactivities of Coastal Organism-Derived Marine Natural Products

A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397). This special issue belongs to the section "Structural Studies on Marine Natural Products".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 July 2026 | Viewed by 1285

Special Issue Editors

Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
Interests: drug discovery; marine natural products; anticancer lead compounds; antiviral lead compounds; Zika virus; RdRP inhibitors; apoptosis; pyroptosis
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Guest Editor
Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
Interests: drug discovery; marine natural products; antiviral lead compounds; anticancer lead compounds; AI-driven drug designs; novel druggable targets

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The vast and largely unexplored biodiversity of coastal marine ecosystems represents a treasure trove for discovering novel bioactive compounds, with sources including sponges, fungi, corals, mangroves, mollusks, algae and more. As global health challenges evolve, the need for innovative therapeutic agents derived from nature has never been more pressing.

Recent advances in analytical chemistry, omics technologies and bioassay-guided isolation have accelerated the exploration of coastal marine natural products (CMNPs) and their bioactivities. Numerous CMNPs exhibit promising pharmacological properties, including anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and anticoagulant activities. Despite these advances, the field faces significant challenges and opportunities. Climate change and coastal pollution further highlight the need for interdisciplinary research to preserve these resources.

This Special Issue highlights recent advances in CMNP discovery, characterization and application, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across marine biology, chemistry, pharmacology and environmental science. We invite researchers to contribute original articles and comprehensive reviews that bridge the gap between marine ecology and pharmaceutical science.

Dr. Jie Yuan
Dr. Jianchen Yu
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-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

  • coastal organisms
  • marine natural products
  • bioactive compounds
  • biosynthesis/metabolic engineering
  • antimicrobial activity
  • anticancer activity
  • antiviral activity
  • drug discovery
  • structure–activity relationship (SAR)
  • bioassay-guided fractionation
  • secondary metabolites
  • AI-driven drug designs

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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15 pages, 1030 KB  
Article
New Cyclopeptides and Curvularins from Marine-Derived Fungal-Bacterial Symbiont Aspergillus spelaeus GXIMD 04541/Sphingomonas echinoides GXIMD 04532
by Fei-Hua Yao, Jie Yang, Xiao-Yan Li, Shu-Fen Xu, Kai Liu, Zhen-Zhou Tang, Wei-Hui Li, Yong-Hong Liu, Xiang-Xi Yi and Cheng-Hai Gao
Mar. Drugs 2026, 24(3), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/md24030111 - 15 Mar 2026
Viewed by 911
Abstract
Three new cyclic tetrapeptides (nectriatidels A-C, 13), two new curvularin analogs (6 and 7), and four known compounds (4 and 5, 8 and 9) were isolated from the marine-derived fungal-bacterial symbiont Aspergillus spelaeus GXIMD 04541/ [...] Read more.
Three new cyclic tetrapeptides (nectriatidels A-C, 13), two new curvularin analogs (6 and 7), and four known compounds (4 and 5, 8 and 9) were isolated from the marine-derived fungal-bacterial symbiont Aspergillus spelaeus GXIMD 04541/Sphingomonas echinoides GXIMD 04532, which was obtained from Mauritia arabica in shallow coastal waters. Their structures were elucidated through NMR spectroscopy and HRESIMS, and their absolute configurations were determined by Marfey’s method and quantum chemical calculations. Compounds 15 showed moderate amphotericin B (AmB)-potentiating activity against Candida albicans. Compounds 7 and 8 exhibited significant activities against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, with MIC values of 32 and 16 μg/mL, respectively. Additionally, compounds 7 and 8 exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against human colorectal cancer cell lines DLD-1 and SW480, with IC50 values of 25~36 μM. Whole-genome sequencing of A. spelaeus revealed a 35.91 Mb assembly encoding 106 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). antiSMASH analysis revealed that 79 of these BGCs (74.5%) displayed no significant similarity to known pathways in the MIBiG database, which is dominated by hybrid clusters, terpene, T1PKS, NRPS, and NRPS-like types. Genomic analysis identified the putative biosynthetic gene clusters for these metabolites and confirmed the fungal host as the predominant producer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactivities of Coastal Organism-Derived Marine Natural Products)
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