Out in the Green: Biologically Active Metabolites Produced by Cyanobacteria

Abstract

Dried cyanobacteria ('Spirulina') are sold as a nutraceutical for their high content of proteins, essential fatty acids and vitamins. Beyond spirulina, other genera of cyanobacteria produce interesting small molecules that could find use in nutraceutical or pharmaceutical applications. This account presents recent research efforts on antimalarial nostocarboline and the aerucyclamides, as well as on potent toxins such as cyanopeptolin 1020 and microcystins. Combinations of spectroscopic, computational, chemical and biological studies investigated the mechanism of action of these compounds. Their application potential with regard to nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals is discussed.

Anti-infective Natural Products from Cyanobacteria

“…In recent years, however, cyanobacteria have gained more attention. They are now recognized as a promising yet underexplored source for novel natural products with potent biological activities, and several reviews covering cyanobacterial metabolites have been published [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. The interest in secondary metabolites from cyanobacteria is rising (l " Fig.…”

10 Natural product drug discovery from microalgae

“…More recently, several excellent reviews have been written to cover cyanobacterial and other microalgal metabolites (Burja et al 2001;Shimizu 2003;Harada 2004;Řezanka and Dembitsky 2006;Sielaff et al 2006;Welker and von Döhren 2006;Tan 2007;Gademann and Portmann 2008;Rastogi and Sinha 2009;Kobayashi and Kubota 2010;Tan 2010;Tidgewell et al 2010;Gademann 2011;Singh et al 2011).…”