scholarly journals Sphingolipids of Asteroidea and Holothuroidea: Structures and Biological Activities

Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 330
Author(s):  
Timofey V. Malyarenko ◽  
Alla A. Kicha ◽  
Valentin A. Stonik ◽  
Natalia V. Ivanchina

Sphingolipids are complex lipids widespread in nature as structural components of biomembranes. Commonly, the sphingolipids of marine organisms differ from those of terrestrial animals and plants. The gangliosides are the most complex sphingolipids characteristic of vertebrates that have been found in only the Echinodermata (echinoderms) phylum of invertebrates. Sphingolipids of the representatives of the Asteroidea and Holothuroidea classes are the most studied among all echinoderms. In this review, we have summarized the data on sphingolipids of these two classes of marine invertebrates over the past two decades. Recently established structures, properties, and peculiarities of biogenesis of ceramides, cerebrosides, and gangliosides from starfishes and holothurians are discussed. The purpose of this review is to provide the most complete information on the chemical structures, structural features, and biological activities of sphingolipids of the Asteroidea and Holothuroidea classes.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 1274
Author(s):  
Jinyun Chen ◽  
Sunyan Lv ◽  
Jia Liu ◽  
Yanlei Yu ◽  
Hong Wang ◽  
...  

1,3-Oxazole chemicals are a unique class of five-membered monocyclic heteroarenes, containing a nitrogen atom and an oxygen. These alkaloids have attracted extensive attention from medicinal chemists and pharmacologists owing to their diverse arrays of chemical structures and biological activities, and a series of 1,3-oxazole derivatives has been developed into therapeutic agents (e.g., almoxatone, befloxatone, cabotegravir, delpazolid, fenpipalone, haloxazolam, inavolisib). A growing amount of evidence indicates that marine organisms are one of important sources of 1,3-oxazole-containing alkaloids. To improve our knowledge regarding these marine-derived substances, as many as 285 compounds are summarized in this review, which, for the first time, highlights their sources, structural features and biological properties, as well as their biosynthesis and chemical synthesis. Perspective for the future discovery of new 1,3-oxazole compounds from marine organisms is also provided.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 569
Author(s):  
Zhaoming Liu ◽  
Hongxin Liu ◽  
Weimin Zhang

Natural polypropionates (PPs) are a large subgroup of polyketides with diverse structural features and bioactivities. Most of the PPs are discovered from marine organisms including mollusks, fungi and actinomycetes, while some of them are also isolated from terrestrial resources. An increasing number of studies about PPs have been carried out in the past two decades and an updated review is needed. In this current review, we summarize the chemical structures and biological activities of 164 natural PPs reported in 67 research papers from 1999 to 2020. The isolation, structural features and bioactivities of these PPs are discussed in detail. The chemical diversity, bioactive diversity, biodiversity and the relationship between chemical classes and the bioactivities are also concluded.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 610
Author(s):  
Junjie Yan ◽  
Weiwei Liu ◽  
Jiatong Cai ◽  
Yiming Wang ◽  
Dahong Li ◽  
...  

Phenazines are a large group of nitrogen-containing heterocycles, providing diverse chemical structures and various biological activities. Natural phenazines are mainly isolated from marine and terrestrial microorganisms. So far, more than 100 different natural compounds and over 6000 synthetic derivatives have been found and investigated. Many phenazines show great pharmacological activity in various fields, such as antimicrobial, antiparasitic, neuroprotective, insecticidal, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activity. Researchers continued to investigate these compounds and hope to develop them as medicines. Cimmino et al. published a significant review about anticancer activity of phenazines, containing articles from 2000 to 2011. Here, we mainly summarize articles from 2012 to 2021. According to sources of compounds, phenazines were categorized into natural phenazines and synthetic phenazine derivatives in this review. Their pharmacological activities, mechanisms of action, biosynthetic pathways and synthetic strategies were summarized. These may provide guidance for the investigation on phenazines in the future.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minghua Jiang ◽  
Zhenger Wu ◽  
Heng Guo ◽  
Lan Liu ◽  
Senhua Chen

Marine-derived fungi are a significant source of pharmacologically active metabolites with interesting structural properties, especially terpenoids with biological and chemical diversity. In the past five years, there has been a tremendous increase in the rate of new terpenoids from marine-derived fungi being discovered. In this updated review, we examine the chemical structures and bioactive properties of new terpenes from marine-derived fungi, and the biodiversity of these fungi from 2015 to 2019. A total of 140 research papers describing 471 new terpenoids of six groups (monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, sesterterpenes, triterpenes, and meroterpenes) from 133 marine fungal strains belonging to 34 genera were included. Among them, sesquiterpenes, meroterpenes, and diterpenes comprise the largest proportions of terpenes, and the fungi genera of Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Trichoderma are the dominant producers of terpenoids. The majority of the marine-derived fungi are isolated from live marine matter: marine animals and aquatic plants (including mangrove plants and algae). Moreover, many terpenoids display various bioactivities, including cytotoxicity, antibacterial activity, lethal toxicity, anti-inflammatory activity, enzyme inhibitor activity, etc. In our opinion, the chemical diversity and biological activities of these novel terpenoids will provide medical and chemical researchers with a plenty variety of promising lead compounds for the development of marine drugs.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 661
Author(s):  
Irene Torres-García ◽  
Josefa L. López-Martínez ◽  
Manuel Muñoz-Dorado ◽  
Ignacio Rodríguez-García ◽  
Miriam Álvarez-Corral

Organic extracts of marine invertebrates, mainly sponges, from seas all over the world are well known for their high in vitro anticancer and antibiotic activities which make them promising sources of compounds with potential use as pharmaceutical leads. Most of the structures discovered so far have a peculiar structural feature in common: a 1,2-dioxane ring. This is a highly reactive heterocycle that can be considered as an endoperoxide function. Together with other structural features, this group could be responsible for the strong biological activities of the substances present in the extracts. Numerous research programs have focused on their structural elucidation and total synthesis since the seventies. As a consequence, the number of established chiral centres and the similarity between different naturally occurring substances is increasingly higher. Most of these compounds have a terpenoid nature, mainly diterpene and sesterterpene, with several peculiar structural features, such as the loss of one carbon atom. Although there are many reviews dealing with the occurrence of marine peroxides, their activities, or potential pharmaceutical uses, no one has focused on those having a terpene origin and the endoperoxide function. We present here a comprehensive review of these compounds paying special attention to their structural features and their biological activity.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azamjon B. Soliev ◽  
Kakushi Hosokawa ◽  
Keiichi Enomoto

Research into natural products from the marine environment, including microorganisms, has rapidly increased over the past two decades. Despite the enormous difficulty in isolating and harvesting marine bacteria, microbial metabolites are increasingly attractive to science because of their broad-ranging pharmacological activities, especially those with unique color pigments. This current review paper gives an overview of the pigmented natural compounds isolated from bacteria of marine origin, based on accumulated data in the literature. We review the biological activities of marine compounds, including recent advances in the study of pharmacological effects and other commercial applications, in addition to the biosynthesis and physiological roles of associated pigments. Chemical structures of the bioactive compounds discussed are also presented.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. N. Fedorov ◽  
V. B. Krasokhin ◽  
L. K. Shubina ◽  
S. A. Dyshlovoy ◽  
N. H. Nam ◽  
...  

It has previously been shown that inhibition of the transcriptional activity of the oncogenic nuclear factor AP-1 can result in cancer prevention. Marine invertebrates and alga are a rich source of natural compounds that possess various biological activities. The inhibitory effects of the extracts of Vietnamese marine organisms in relation to the AP-1 transcriptional activity were examined by the luciferase method using JB6 Cl41 cells stably expressing a luciferase reporter gene controlled by AP-1 DNA binding sequence. As was found, 71 species of marine sponges out of 148 species studied contain inhibitors of the AP-1 transcriptional activity. Therefore, marine organisms as a source of biologically active compounds have a great potential for isolation of the new cancer preventive compounds that inhibit the oncogenic AP-1 nuclear factor.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (T5) ◽  
pp. 95-101
Author(s):  
Ngan Thi Kim Tran ◽  
Ly Thi Le ◽  
Nhi Thi Y Nguyen ◽  
Minh Thi Tran ◽  
Quan Le Tran

Euphorbia hirta Linn. (co sua la lon in Vietnamese) belongs to Euphorbiaceae family, is a group of small prostrate herbaceous annual weed in Vietnam. It is abundant in waste places and open grasslands and distributes in most Asian countries. E. hirta is traditionally used in the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, bronchial and respiratory. The aqueous extract exhibits anxiolytic, analgesic, antipyretic, and anti-inflammatory activities. Strong anti-diabetic activity of Euphorbiaceae family in general and E. hirta in particular was reported in the past investigations. E. hirta has been studied by various investigations and several active constituents have been isolated and identified successfully. Most of those compounds have strong biological activities. At the first step in the processing of the isolation of bioactive compounds from the ethyl acetate extract, we isolated four purified compounds, including methyl gallate (1), quercetin (2), myrecitin (3), and quercitrin (4). The chemical structures of those compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic methods and compared with published data in the literature.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 403
Author(s):  
Zhiqiang Song ◽  
Yage Hou ◽  
Qingrong Yang ◽  
Xinpeng Li ◽  
Shaohua Wu

Diketopiperazines are potential structures with extensive biological functions, which have attracted much attention of natural product researchers for a long time. These compounds possess a stable six-membered ring, which is an important pharmacophore. The marine organisms have especially been proven to be a wide source for discovering diketopiperazine derivatives. In recent years, more and more interesting bioactive diketopiperazines had been found from various marine habitats. This review article is focused on the new 2,5-diketopiperazines derived from marine organisms (sponges and microorganisms) reported from the secondary half-year of 2014 to the first half of the year of 2021. We will comment their chemical structures, biological activities and sources. The objective is to assess the merit of these compounds for further study in the field of drug discovery.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 3973
Author(s):  
Jia-Nan Zhang ◽  
Yi-Xuan Xia ◽  
Hong-Jie Zhang

Cyclopeptides or cyclic peptides are polypeptides formed by ring closing of terminal amino acids. A large number of natural cyclopeptides have been reported to be highly effective against different cancer cells, some of which are renowned for their clinical uses. Compared to linear peptides, cyclopeptides have absolute advantages of structural rigidity, biochemical stability, binding affinity as well as membrane permeability, which contribute greatly to their anticancer potency. Therefore, the discovery and development of natural cyclopeptides as anticancer agents remains attractive to academic researchers and pharmaceutical companies. Herein, we provide an overview of anticancer cyclopeptides that were discovered in the past 20 years. The present review mainly focuses on the anticancer efficacies, mechanisms of action and chemical structures of cyclopeptides with natural origins. Additionally, studies of the structure–activity relationship, total synthetic strategies as well as bioactivities of natural cyclopeptides are also included in this article. In conclusion, due to their characteristic structural features, natural cyclopeptides have great potential to be developed as anticancer agents. Indeed, they can also serve as excellent scaffolds for the synthesis of novel derivatives for combating cancerous pathologies.


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