Metabolomic Approach to Investigate Marine Fungi for Drug Discovery

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 September 2020) | Viewed by 11161

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Complesso Universitario Monte S. Angelo Via Cintia 4, I-80126 Naples, Italy
Interests: secondary metabolites in plant-pathogen interaction; natural substances with biological activity; chromatographic techniques; spectroscopic methods
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Co-Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Complesso Universitario Monte S. Angelo, 80126 Naples, Italy
Interests: isolation and structure elucidation of natural compounds from microorganisms and plants; synthesis and derivatization of natural products; chromatographic techniques; analytical and spectroscopic techniques
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fungi can be thought as biosynthetic factories holding the recipes for a plethora of biologically active and structurally diverse natural products. These compounds might be valuable for drug discovery, and have potential in industrial or agricultural applications. New opportunities to identify natural fungal compounds with interesting biological activities are offered by the marine environment because of its relatively untapped biodiversity compared to terrestrial habitats.

The systematic evaluation of marine fungi and their secondary metabolites is just starting. In addition to the classic procedure of isolating and identifying bioactive fungal substances, the metabolomics approach represents an emerging tool for metabolite identification in complex samples. As a robust and comprehensive analytical method, metabolomics measures qualitative and quantitative changes of metabolites representing the functional phenotypes which are the net result of genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic changes. This approach can also be used to optimize a biosynthetic pathway to selectively produce biologically active secondary metabolites. Furthermore, the combination of different techniques such as tandem mass spectrometry, ultraviolet, and NMR spectroscopies allows the correct identification of the basic structures of compounds in crude samples.

This Special Issue “Metabolomic Approach to Investigate Marine Fungi for Drug Discovery” is destined to gather reviews, original experimental papers, and short notes reporting findings on metabolite contents of marine fungal cultures, with metabolomic approach, for their antibiotic, antitumor, antiviral, insecticidal, antimalarial, antifouling, antioxidant, as well as other less-exploited activities.

Dr. Anna Andolfi
Dr. Marina Della Greca
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • marine-derived fungi
  • metabolomics
  • chemical structure elucidation
  • biological activity
  • mass spectrometry techniques
  • liquid and gas chromatography
  • NMR

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 1739 KiB  
Article
Pyrenosetins A–C, New Decalinoylspirotetramic Acid Derivatives Isolated by Bioactivity-Based Molecular Networking from the Seaweed-Derived Fungus Pyrenochaetopsis sp. FVE-001
by Bicheng Fan, Pradeep Dewapriya, Fengjie Li, Martina Blümel and Deniz Tasdemir
Mar. Drugs 2020, 18(1), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/md18010047 - 11 Jan 2020
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 7840
Abstract
Marine algae represent a prolific source of filamentous fungi for bioprospecting. In continuation of our search for new anticancer leads from fungi derived from the brown alga Fucus vesiculosus, an endophytic Pyrenochaetopsis sp. FVE-001 was selected for an in-depth chemical analysis. The [...] Read more.
Marine algae represent a prolific source of filamentous fungi for bioprospecting. In continuation of our search for new anticancer leads from fungi derived from the brown alga Fucus vesiculosus, an endophytic Pyrenochaetopsis sp. FVE-001 was selected for an in-depth chemical analysis. The crude fungal extract inhibited several cancer cell lines in vitro, and the highest anticancer activity was tracked to its CHCl3–soluble portion. A bioactivity-based molecular networking approach was applied to C18-SPE fractions of the CHCl3 subextract to predict the bioactivity scores of metabolites in the fractions and to aid targeted purification of anticancer metabolites. This approach led to a rapid isolation of three new decalinoylspirotetramic acid derivatives, pyrenosetins A–C (13) and the known decalin tetramic acid phomasetin (4). The structures of the compounds were elucidated by extensive NMR, HR-ESIMS, FT-IR spectroscopy, [α]D and Mosher’s ester method. Compounds 1 and 2 showed high anticancer activity against malignant melanoma cell line A-375 (IC50 values 2.8 and 6.3 μM, respectively), in line with the bioactivity predictions. This is the first study focusing on secondary metabolites of a marine-derived Pyrenochaetopsis sp. and the second investigation performed on the member of the genus Pyrenochaetopsis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomic Approach to Investigate Marine Fungi for Drug Discovery)
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Review

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14 pages, 3339 KiB  
Review
Occurrence and Properties of Thiosilvatins
by Maria Michela Salvatore, Rosario Nicoletti, Marina DellaGreca and Anna Andolfi
Mar. Drugs 2019, 17(12), 664; https://doi.org/10.3390/md17120664 - 26 Nov 2019
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2372
Abstract
The spread of studies on biodiversity in different environmental contexts is particularly fruitful for natural product discovery, with the finding of novel secondary metabolites and structural models, which are sometimes specific to certain organisms. Within the large class of the epipolythiodioxopiperazines, which are [...] Read more.
The spread of studies on biodiversity in different environmental contexts is particularly fruitful for natural product discovery, with the finding of novel secondary metabolites and structural models, which are sometimes specific to certain organisms. Within the large class of the epipolythiodioxopiperazines, which are typical of fungi, thiosilvatins represent a homogeneous family that, so far, has been reported in low frequency in both marine and terrestrial contexts. However, recent observations indicate that these compounds have been possibly neglected in the metabolomic characterization of fungi, particularly from marine sources. Aspects concerning occurrence, bioactivities, structural, and biosynthetic properties of thiosilvatins are reviewed in this paper. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomic Approach to Investigate Marine Fungi for Drug Discovery)
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