Steroids from Marine Sources

Dear Colleagues,

The discovery during the mid-last century of the first marine steroids with unprecedented structures has opened a large avenue of marine investigations. Thus far, several hundreds of unique steroids have been provided from the marine world, exhibiting a remarkable variety of substitutions and rearrangements. Some of them revealed significant biological activities, including cytotoxic, antimicrobial, antiparasitic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and cardiovascular activities.

The most promising unconventional steroid, namely the unusual sulfated aminosterol squalamine, originally isolated from the dogfish Squalus acanthias as a powerful antibiotic, has revealed significant antiangiogenic activity. Squalamine is currently in advanced clinical trials in the treatment of ovarian cancer and also of age-related macular degeneration. Its potential application in Parkinson’s disease has also been suggested. More recently, sterol sulfates appeared as regulatory molecules, able to control the growth of a marine diatom bloom.

While the interest of sterol in ecological studies as biomarkers or for antifouling is pointed out, steroids have been continuously isolated from diverse marine organisms, including sponges, starfishes, gorgonian corals, as well as marine microorganisms. Their structures with unusual side chains are elucidated in detail, their potential biological activities and their mechanisms of action have been intensively investigated.

This Special Issue of Marine Drugs aims to provide recent studies on marine steroids, encompassing novel structures and biosynthetic routes, potential medical applications and ecological roles within the marine organisms and their environments.

Prof. Dr. Marie-Lise Bourguet-Kondracki
Guest Editor

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