Papers from MarPipe and Ocean Medicines

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 43426

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Department of Ecosustainable Marine Biotechnology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Via Acton 55, 80133 Napoli, Italy
Interests: blue economy; sustainability; Ocean Decade; marine bioprospecting
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The marine environment encompasses tremendous biological and chemical diversity, which are still largely untapped. Marine microorganisms possess secondary metabolites that assist in survival and defense in these harsh habitats. Particularly, marine resources are involved in value-added products and processes in the food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and bioprocess industries. Bioprospecting for these natural products is important to the European Union’s (EU) growing “blue” bioeconomy, which is focused on creating employment, boosting economic growth, and contributing to a healthier and sustainable society. Blue growth is a system employed by the EU to make provision for sustainable development from the marine and maritime sectors. Since the seas and oceans play a pivotal role in driving the European economy, its contribution to achieving the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth cannot be overlooked. The “blue” economy contributes approximately 5.4 million jobs and produces a gross added value of nearly €500 billion per year. However, additional growth can be acquired by developing sectors that have a high potential for sustainable jobs and growth, such as aquaculture, coastal tourism, ocean energy, seabed mining, and marine biotechnology.

Therefore, in order to fully exploit these promising biological resources, new strategies in the pipeline as well as a new cohort of cross-disciplinary trained scientists are needed to overcome existing bottlenecks and ensure the production of high-value biomolecules.

The H2020-MSCA-ITN-ETN: MarPipe is a Research and Training Network program of 11 academic and industrial partners based in eight European countries working in collaboration to train young researchers in the field of marine drug discovery.

The H2020-MSCA-RISE: Ocean Medicines is a network of academic research centers and SMEs across Europe, with proven experience in higher education and training, and is endowed with state-of-the art scientific and technical expertise and infrastructures, aimed at hosting a new generation of marine biodiscovery scientists from developing a new drug to its commercialization, innovation, and possibilities of entrepreneurship.

Therefore, this Special Issue will focus on the research outputs as well as review articles, conducted or written by this new generation of marine biodiscovery scientists trained in the MarPipe and Ocean Medicines, highlighting new compounds, strategies, and improvements in the pipeline of marine biodiscovery.

Dr. Donatella De Pascale
Guest Editor

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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.

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 855 KiB  
Article
Bioactivity Screening and Gene-Trait Matching across Marine Sponge-Associated Bacteria
by Asimenia Gavriilidou, Thomas Andrew Mackenzie, Pilar Sánchez, José Ruben Tormo, Colin Ingham, Hauke Smidt and Detmer Sipkema
Mar. Drugs 2021, 19(2), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/md19020075 - 30 Jan 2021
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 6548
Abstract
Marine sponges harbor diverse microbial communities that represent a significant source of natural products. In the present study, extracts of 21 sponge-associated bacteria were screened for their antimicrobial and anticancer activity, and their genomes were mined for secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). [...] Read more.
Marine sponges harbor diverse microbial communities that represent a significant source of natural products. In the present study, extracts of 21 sponge-associated bacteria were screened for their antimicrobial and anticancer activity, and their genomes were mined for secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Phylogenetic analysis assigned the strains to four major phyla in the sponge microbiome, namely Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes. Bioassays identified one extract with anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) activity, and more than 70% of the total extracts had a moderate to high cytotoxicity. The most active extracts were derived from the Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria, prominent for producing bioactive substances. The strong bioactivity potential of the aforementioned strains was also evident in the abundance of BGCs, which encoded mainly beta-lactones, bacteriocins, non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS), terpenes, and siderophores. Gene-trait matching was performed for the most active strains, aiming at linking their biosynthetic potential with the experimental results. Genetic associations were established for the anti-MRSA and cytotoxic phenotypes based on the similarity of the detected BGCs with BGCs encoding natural products with known bioactivity. Overall, our study highlights the significance of combining in vitro and in silico approaches in the search of novel natural products of pharmaceutical interest. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Papers from MarPipe and Ocean Medicines)
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18 pages, 1996 KiB  
Article
Characterization of a New Mixture of Mono-Rhamnolipids Produced by Pseudomonas gessardii Isolated from Edmonson Point (Antarctica)
by Carmine Buonocore, Pietro Tedesco, Giovanni Andrea Vitale, Fortunato Palma Esposito, Rosa Giugliano, Maria Chiara Monti, Maria Valeria D’Auria and Donatella de Pascale
Mar. Drugs 2020, 18(5), 269; https://doi.org/10.3390/md18050269 - 20 May 2020
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 4900
Abstract
Rhamnolipids (RLs) are surface-active molecules mainly produced by Pseudomonas spp. Antarctica is one of the less explored places on Earth and bioprospecting for novel RL producer strains represents a promising strategy for the discovery of novel structures. In the present study, 34 cultivable [...] Read more.
Rhamnolipids (RLs) are surface-active molecules mainly produced by Pseudomonas spp. Antarctica is one of the less explored places on Earth and bioprospecting for novel RL producer strains represents a promising strategy for the discovery of novel structures. In the present study, 34 cultivable bacteria isolated from Edmonson Point Lake, Ross Sea, Antarctica were subjected to preliminary screening for the biosurfactant activity. The positive strains were identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and the produced RLs were characterized by liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRESIMS) and liquid chromatography coupled with tandem spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), resulting in a new mixture of 17 different RL congeners, with six previously undescribed RLs. We explored the influence of the carbon source on the RL composition using 12 different raw materials, such as monosaccharides, polysaccharides and petroleum industry derivatives, reporting for the first time the production of RLs using, as sole carbon source, anthracene and benzene. Moreover, we investigated the antimicrobial potential of the RL mixture, towards a panel of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens, reporting very interesting results towards Listeria monocytogenes with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 3.13 µg/mL. Finally, we report for the first time the antimicrobial activity of RLs towards three strains of the emerging multidrug resistant Stenotrophomonas maltophilia with MIC values of 12.5 µg/mL. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Papers from MarPipe and Ocean Medicines)
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13 pages, 2975 KiB  
Article
Amphidinol 22, a New Cytotoxic and Antifungal Amphidinol from the Dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae
by Kevin A. Martínez, Chiara Lauritano, Dana Druka, Giovanna Romano, Teresa Grohmann, Marcel Jaspars, Jesús Martín, Caridad Díaz, Bastien Cautain, Mercedes de la Cruz, Adrianna Ianora and Fernando Reyes
Mar. Drugs 2019, 17(7), 385; https://doi.org/10.3390/md17070385 - 27 Jun 2019
Cited by 64 | Viewed by 7730
Abstract
Due to the unique biodiversity and the physical-chemical properties of their environment, marine microorganisms have evolved defense and signaling compounds that often have no equivalent in terrestrial habitats. The aim of this study was to screen extracts of the dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae for [...] Read more.
Due to the unique biodiversity and the physical-chemical properties of their environment, marine microorganisms have evolved defense and signaling compounds that often have no equivalent in terrestrial habitats. The aim of this study was to screen extracts of the dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae for possible bioactivities (i.e., anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetes, antibacterial and antifungal properties) and identify bioactive compounds. Anticancer activity was evaluated on human lung adenocarcinoma (A549), human skin melanoma (A2058), human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2), human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF7) and human pancreas carcinoma (MiaPaca-2) cell lines. Antimicrobial activities were evaluated against Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus MRSA and MSSA), Gram-negative bacteria (i.e., Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae), Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. The results indicated moderate biological activities against all the cancer cells lines and microorganisms tested. Bioassay-guided fractionation assisted by HRMS analysis allowed the detection of one new and two known amphidinols that are potentially responsible for the antifungal and cytotoxic activities observed. Further isolation, purification and structural elucidation led to a new amphidinol, named amphidinol 22. The planar structure of the new compound was determined by analysis of its HRMS and 1D and 2D NMR spectra. Its biological activity was evaluated, and it displayed both anticancer and antifungal activities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Papers from MarPipe and Ocean Medicines)
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Review

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23 pages, 2518 KiB  
Review
Marine Collagen from Alternative and Sustainable Sources: Extraction, Processing and Applications
by Daniela Coppola, Maria Oliviero, Giovanni Andrea Vitale, Chiara Lauritano, Isabella D’Ambra, Salvatore Iannace and Donatella de Pascale
Mar. Drugs 2020, 18(4), 214; https://doi.org/10.3390/md18040214 - 15 Apr 2020
Cited by 201 | Viewed by 23182
Abstract
Due to its unique properties, collagen is used in the growing fields of pharmaceutical and biomedical devices, as well as in the fields of nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, food and beverages. Collagen also represents a valid resource for bioplastics and biomaterials, to be used in [...] Read more.
Due to its unique properties, collagen is used in the growing fields of pharmaceutical and biomedical devices, as well as in the fields of nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, food and beverages. Collagen also represents a valid resource for bioplastics and biomaterials, to be used in the emerging health sectors. Recently, marine organisms have been considered as promising sources of collagen, because they do not harbor transmissible disease. In particular, fish biomass as well as by-catch organisms, such as undersized fish, jellyfish, sharks, starfish, and sponges, possess a very high collagen content. The use of discarded and underused biomass could contribute to the development of a sustainable process for collagen extraction, with a significantly reduced environmental impact. This addresses the European zero-waste strategy, which supports all three generally accepted goals of sustainability: sustainable economic well-being, environmental protection, and social well-being. A zero-waste strategy would use far fewer new raw materials and send no waste materials to landfills. In this review, we present an overview of the studies carried out on collagen obtained from by-catch organisms and fish wastes. Additionally, we discuss novel technologies based on thermoplastic processes that could be applied, likewise, as marine collagen treatment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Papers from MarPipe and Ocean Medicines)
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