Marine sponges of the genus Stelletta as promising drug sources: chemical and biological aspects

Abstract

Marine sponges of the genus Stelletta are well known as rich sources of diverse and complex biologically relevant natural products, including alkaloids, terpenoids, peptides, lipids, and steroids. Some of these metabolites, with novel structures and promising biological activities, have attracted a lot of attention from chemists seeking to perform their total synthesis in parallel to intensive biological studies towards new drug leads. In this review, we summarized the distribution of the chemically investigated Stelletta sponges, the isolation, synthesis and biological activities of their secondary metabolites, covering the literature from 1982 to early 2018.

Marine Alkaloids with Anti-Inflammatory Activity: Current Knowledge and Future Perspectives

“…Several studies describe the presence of alkaloids in Alcyonacea coral species, with antiviral, antitumor, antibiotic, and immunomodulatory activities [44]. Similarly, many sponge alkaloids have been identified, and their potential antibiotic, antifungal, antitumor, antileukemic, and antidepressant activities have been described [45][46][47][48][49]. Similar effects were observed for alkaloids obtained from genera of marine fungi [50].…”

New Isomalabaricane-Derived Metabolites from a Stelletta sp. Marine Sponge

“…Indeed, isomalabaricane triterpenoids were mainly found as very complex mixtures in tropical sponge samples, while boreal and cold-water sponges contain mostly alkaloids and lipids. From a chemo-ecological point of view, this indicates that studied sponges are able to produce different types of secondary metabolites in order to adapt to the various living conditions [ 6 ]. In confirmation, our attempt to find isomalabaricanes in a cold-water Stelletta spp., collected in 2019 in the Sea of Okhotsk, was unsuccessful, as the characteristic yellow pigments were not detected by thin layer chromatography in the extracts of these sponges.…”

“…Additionally, in result of the chemical investigation of the sponge Stelletta tenuis , Li et al identified two naturally occurring α-pyrones, namely gibepyrones C and F, along with three isomalabaricane-type triterpenoids [ 7 ]. These α-pyrones were supposed to be the oxidation products of the co-occurring stellettins [ 6 ]. Gibepyrone F had previously been isolated from the fungal plant pathogen Gibberella fujikuroi [ 8 ], as well as from the sponge Jaspis stellifera [ 9 ].…”

Cytotoxic Nitrogenous Terpenoids from Two South China Sea Nudibranchs Phyllidiella pustulosa, Phyllidia coelestis, and Their Sponge-Prey Acanthella cavernosa

“…In our previous chemical investigation on South China Sea (Hainan) nudibranchs and sponges, nitrogenous terpenoids were isolated and structurally characterized [1,17,18,32,33,34]. In the course of our continuing project on searching for chemically fascinating and biologically active secondary metabolites from Hainan marine molluscs, as well as the chemical ecology study between nudibranchs and their sponge-preys, we made different collections of two nudibranchs, Phyllidiella pustulosa and Phyllidia coelestis , as well as their sponge-prey Acanthella cavernosa , from the same location (Xidao Island, Hainan Province, China), with the aim of accumulating their nitrogenous metabolites for further study of their bioactivities, as well as studying the dietary relationship between P. pustulos , P. coelestis , and their sponge-prey A. cavernosa .…”