Secondary Metabolites from Marine Sources with Potential Use as Leads for Anticancer Applications

Abstract

The development of novel anticancer agents is essential to finding new ways to treat this disease, one of the deadliest diseases. Some marine organisms have proved to be important producers of chemically active compounds with valuable bioactive properties, including anticancer. Thus, the ocean has proved to be a huge source of bioactive compounds, making the discovery and study of these compounds a growing area. In the last few years, several compounds of marine origin, which include algae, corals, and sea urchins, have been isolated, studied, and demonstrated to possess anticancer properties. These compounds, mainly from securamines and sterols families, have been tested for cytotoxic/antiproliferative activity in different cell lines. Bioactive compounds isolated from marine organisms in the past 5 years that have shown anticancer activity, emphasizing the ones that showed the highest cytotoxic activity, such as securamines H and I, cholest-3β,5α,6β-triol, (E)-24-methylcholest-22-ene-3β,5α,6β-triol, 24-methylenecholesta-3β,5α,6β-triol, and 24-methylcholesta-3β,5α,6β-triol, will be discussed in this review. These studies reveal the possibility of new compounds of marine origin being used as new therapeutic agents or as a source of inspiration to develop new therapeutic agents.

Design and Characterization of a Natural Arf-GEFs Inhibitor Prodrug CHNQD-01255 with Potent Anti-Hepatocellular Carcinoma Efficacy In Vivo

“…Natural products with structural diversity and unique biological activities have always been developed as new therapeutic agents or as a source of inspiration to exploit new therapeutic agents for different diseases. − Arf1, a small guanosine triphosphate-binding protein in a variety of malignant tumors, is associated with tumor progression and metastasis . Growing evidence supports that Arf1 can be used as an effective therapeutic target for tumor therapy, , which was corroborated in current findings that Arf1-mediated lipid metabolism sustained cancer cells, and its ablation (synergistic effect with PD-1 blockage) induced antitumor immune responses in mice …”

Gongolarones as antiamoeboid chemical scaffold

“…The graph represented in the Figs. [14][15][16] show the mean values of green fluorescence intensity produced by trophozoites of Acanthamoeba spp. Data indicated that the differences between the mean values of treated cells with compounds 1, 3 and 4, and negative controls cells were significant in all tested strains of Acanthamoeba; * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001 and **** p < 0.0001.…”

“…The application of molecules produced by marine organisms to treat several diseases has notably increased in the recent years [12]. Among these organisms, macroalgae contains a wide variety of bioactive secondary metabolites including phlorotannins, glycerols, quinones, polyketides, polysaccharide, diterpenoids, phenolic compounds, sterols, cyclic peptide, lipids, and alkaloids [13,14]. Lately, several reports have confirmed the diverse pharmacological properties of seaweeds as antimicrobial, anti-helminthic, cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory, and antiprotozoal among other biological activities [15][16][17].…”

In-silico study of seaweed secondary metabolites as AXL kinase inhibitors

“…Seaweeds, in accumulation to their usage as food, are present consistently accredited as a vital source of new natural products that might embrace significant principals for upcoming drug discovery and advancement, comprising in the hindrance of the treatment in cardiovascular and anticancer. In this advancement, in vitro studies are only the initial phase in an extensive procedure, whereas in vivo investigations and clinical trials are the utmost illuminating phases of the factual prospective and boundaries that a secondary metabolite might have castoff as a new drug ( Hussain et al, 2016 , Rocha et al, 2018 , Rosa et al, 2020 , Seca and Pinto, 2018a , Veríssimo et al, 2021 ). Seaweeds show a significant part in ocean biodiversity and contain green, brown, and red algae.…”