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Antitumor and Anti-infective Agents from Marine Organisms

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Dear Colleagues,

Oceans cover nearly 70% of the earth surface and host a huge biodiversity of species. Marine organisms have evolved the capability to survive in very hostile environments (such as extreme temperatures, changes in salinity and pressure, predation and attack by pathogens) which have also favoured the production of molecules that often have no terrestrial counterpart. The demand for new drugs for the treatment and prevention of human diseases has triggered a growing interest in marine sources for the discovery of new molecules. Actually, there are 14 marine drugs on the market and 23 marine derived compounds in clinical trials. Cancer treatment is the most frequent field of application, maybe because these compounds have often defensive roles in the natural environments. Recently, there is a renewed interest in exploring the marine habitat also thanks to the advancement in cultivation technologies and omics analyses (such as transcriptome and genome mining). Marine biotechnology studies have shown that several compounds from marine organisms can have pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and other industrial applications. We would like to encourage the submission in this special issue "Marine Natural Products" to collect recent original research and reviews in the field, highlighting bioactivities of natural products derived from marine organisms and their possible applications.

Importantly, the exact active ingredient of natural origin extract must be reported in the submitted research manuscript, since papers describing the effects of mixed extraction from natural origin are not acceptable.

Dr. Chiara Lauritano
Dr. Assunta Saide
Guest Editors

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Keywords

marine organisms
antitumor compounds
bioactive molecules
marine biotechnology
drug discovery
cancer treatment
mechanism of action

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Research

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17 pages, 13328 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Crassolide Induces G2/M Cell Cycle Arrest, Apoptosis, and Autophagy in Human Lung Cancer Cells via ROS-Mediated ER Stress Pathways

by Kuan-Ming Lai, Jou-Hsuan Wang, Shih-Chao Lin, Ya Wen, Chao-Liang Wu, Jui-Hsin Su, Chien-Chin Chen and Chi-Chien Lin

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(10), 5624; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23105624 - 17 May 2022

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 2888

Abstract

Crassolide, a cembranoid diterpene extracted from the soft coral Lobophytum crissum, has been proven to possess antioxidant and immunomodulatory properties. In the present study, we assessed the anticancer effects of crassolide on human H460 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. We found that crassolide exerted cytotoxic effects on H460 cancer cells in vitro, inducing G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis. In addition, in H460 cells exposed to crassolide, the expression of the autophagy-related proteins LC3-II and beclin was increased, while the expression of p62 was decreased. Moreover, inhibiting autophagy with chloroquine (CQ) suppressed the crassolide-induced G2/M arrest and apoptosis of H460 cells. Moreover, we also found that crassolide induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in lung cancer cells by increasing the expression of ER stress marker proteins and that the crassolide-induced G2/M arrest, apoptosis, and autophagy were markedly attenuated by the ER stress inhibitor 4-phenylbutyric acid (4-PBA). Furthermore, we found that crassolide promoted reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by H460 cells and that the ROS inhibitor N-acetylcysteine (NAC) decreased the crassolide-induced ER stress, G2/M arrest, apoptosis, and autophagy. In conclusion, our findings show that crassolide inhibits NSCLC cell malignant biological behaviors for the first time, suggesting that this effect may be mechanistically achieved by inducing G2/M arrest, apoptosis, and autophagy through ROS accumulation, which activates the ER stress pathway. As a result of our findings, we now have a better understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the anticancer effect of crassolide, and we believe crassolide might be a candidate for targeted cancer therapy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antitumor and Anti-infective Agents from Marine Organisms)

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23 pages, 2022 KiB

Open AccessReview

Marine Compounds for Melanoma Treatment and Prevention

by Eleonora Montuori, Anita Capalbo and Chiara Lauritano

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(18), 10284; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms231810284 - 07 Sep 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1988

Abstract

Melanoma is considered a multifactorial disease etiologically divided into melanomas related to sun exposure and those that are not, but also based on their mutational signatures, anatomic site, and epidemiology. The incidence of melanoma skin cancer has been increasing over the past decades with 132,000 cases occurring globally each year. Marine organisms have been shown to be an excellent source of natural compounds with possible bioactivities for human health applications. In this review, we report marine compounds from micro- and macro-organisms with activities in vitro and in vivo against melanoma, including the compound Marizomib, isolated from a marine bacterium, currently in phase III clinical trials for melanoma. When available, we also report active concentrations, cellular targets and mechanisms of action of the mentioned molecules. In addition, compounds used for UV protection and melanoma prevention from marine sources are discussed. This paper gives an overview of promising marine molecules which can be studied more deeply before clinical trials in the near future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antitumor and Anti-infective Agents from Marine Organisms)

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