Marine Natural Products. Key Advances to the Practical Application of this Resource in Drug Development

Abstract

Over a half century has passed since the first discovery of spongothymidine and spongouridine. These sponge-derived natural products initiated a chain of events that has resulted in countless lives saved from viral infections and cancer. In addition these humble marine products inspired the critical evaluation of marine life for the production of novel chemistry and new drug leads. The resulting natural products chemistry from these efforts is unprecedented in regard to structural complexity and biological activity. The drug leads based on marine natural products have however created unique challenges in scaleable production and structural optimization to evaluate toxicity and enhance biological activity. In this report we have focused our discussion on the progress toward the development of general methodologies for the production, optimization and development of rare but promising marine natural product drug leads. Key developments discussed briefly include sourcing, lead optimization, molecular biology and phylogeny, marine microbial culture, and tools for structure assignment.