Towards Commercial Production of Sponge Medicines

Abstract

Sponges can provide potential drugs against many major world-wide occurring diseases. Despite the high potential of sponge derived drugs no sustainable production method has been developed. Thus far it is not fully understood why, when, where and how these metabolites are produced in sponges. For the near future sea-based sponge culture seems to be the best production method. However, for controlled production in a defined system it is better to develop in vitro production methods, like in vitro sponge culture or even better sponge cell culture, culture methods for symbionts or the transfer of production routes into another host. We still have insufficient information about the background of metabolite production in sponges. Before production methods are developed we should first focus on factors that can induce metabolite production. This could be done in the natural habitat by studying the relation between stress factors (such as predation) and the production of bioactive metabolites. The location of production within the sponge should be identified in order to choose between sponge cell culture and symbiont culture. Alternatively the biosynthetic pathways could be introduced into hosts that can be cultured. For this the biosynthetic pathway of metabolite production should be unraveled, as well as the genes involved. This review discusses the current state of sponge metabolite production and the steps that need to be taken to develop commercial production techniques. The different possible production techniques are also discussed.

An Overview on Marine Sponge-Symbiotic Bacteria as Unexhausted Sources for Natural Product Discovery

“…Symbiont cultivation may also be a viable solution to overcome the supply and sustainability issues associated with wild harvest of marine macro-organisms to obtain useable amounts of the compounds of interest [25,77,246]. This approach can at least provide a more efficient method for determining the regulation and functionality of the metabolic pathways in question [31].…”

“…Over 15,000 marine natural products have been isolated from marine invertebrates [23] [24] with over 30% of these having been derived from sponges [25]. A large number of highly active anti-cancer compounds have been isolated from marine invertebrates, including eleutherobin (Eleutherobia corals), sarcodictyin (Stolonigeran coral) [26], cytarabine (sponge-Tectitethya crypta) [17], and bryostatins (bryozoan-Bugula neritine) [23,27].…”

Extraction and Characterization of Bioactive Compounds from Cultured and Natural Sponge, Haliclona molitba and Stylotella aurantium Origin of Indonesia

“…Green method [7] with some modifications. Extraction was conducted by using methanol and distilled water as solvents.…”

Cultivation of Marine Sponges with Pharmaceutical Value: Status and Future Prospects in India

“…Maintaining such long duration cultivation in indoor systems could be laborious and hence, extensive culture systems should be planned in open sea conditions using ropes (horizontal and vertical), frames, and small cages. However, Koopmans et al, (2009) suggests that apart from costs, sea-based culture is less desirable than land based culture as sea conditions cannot be controlled and sponges are vulnerable to diseases and parasites.…”