Bill Gerwick, OSU

What are Secondary Metabolites?Also known as natural products, secondary metabolites are organic compounds (small molecules) that are not significant in the everyday processes, development or normal growth of an organism. However, they play an important role in the ecology of the organism such as defense, or facilitating reproduction, among others.

For centuries, humans have used plants secondary metabolites as defense and valuable medical resources, however, during the last 40 years marine natural products have been the center of numerous research projects

Marine Secondary Metabolites

A large number of antibiotics, medical, and industrial products are produced from secondary metabolites. Although plants natural products are very rich, marine invertebrates such as sponges, bryozoans, mollusks, tunicates, etc, contribute greatly to the production of marine secondary metabolites (from symbiotic bacteria or fungi), producing the largest chemical diversity of natural products.

Use of Marine Secondary Metabolites

Porifera (sponges) -

Bryozoa (bryozoans)

Produce cytotoxic compounds– A potential anti-cancer drug

Cytarabine

Isolation of C-nucleosides from the Caribbean sponge, Cryptotheca crypta. This discovery provided the basis for the synthesis of cytarabine, the first marine-derived anticancer agent to be developed for clinical use.

Ecteinascidin 743• Natural marine product isolated from the Caribbean tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata• Potential new anti-cancer compound

Bryostatin

Compound derived from Bugula neritina.

Many medicinal potentials:Anti-tumorPreservation of

memory- Alzheimer Depression

Not only marine macroorganisms play an important role in the production of natural products, microorganisms also are important, being unexploited resources for novel bioactive compounds

Use of secondary metabolites produced by marine fungi , metabolic pathways, and origin

Antitumors & Antibacterials

Alcyonarian (bacterial)

Mollusks (used also in enzymatic inhibition by bacterial & fungal)

Marine sponge (used also in enzymatic inhibition by bacterial & fungal)

Tunicates (bacterial & fungal)

Marine worms (only antibacterial)

Antiviral

From Phanerogame (fungal)

and sedimentary bacteria

Antifungal, antitumoral,

antidopamine,

Blue and Brown Alga (fungal)

Anti-inflammatory

Jellyfish (bacterial)

Crab (fungal)

References: Costantino, V.; Fattorusso, E.; Menna, M.; Taglialatela-Scafati, O. (2004) Chemical

Diversity of Bioactive Marine Natural Products: An Illustrative Case Study. Current Medicinal Chemistry, Vol. 11, 1671-1692

Battershill, C.; Jaspars, M.; Long, P. Marine biodiscovery: new drugs from the ocean depths. Volume 52 Number 2. pp 107-114.

Kelecome, A. (2005). Secondary metabolites from marine microorganisms. Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Vol. 74, num. 1. pp 151–170. Available from. http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:DEYy6hfI_jQJ:www.scielo.br/pdf/aabc/v74n1/v74n1a12.pdf+use+of+marine+secondary+metabolites&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Dr. A. S. NinawePhD. (2006). Marine Natural Products and Antagonistic Properties of Marine Organisms for Human Health. PharmAsia. Available from. http://www.pharmaasia.com/article-5858-marinenaturalproductsandantagonisticpropertiesofmarineorganismsforhumanhealth-Asia.html

D'Incalci, M. ; Erba, E.; Damia, G.; Galliera, E.; Carrassa, L.; Marchini, S.; Mantovani, R,; Tognon, G. ; Fruscio , R.; Jimeno, J.; Faircloth, G.T. (2002) Unique Features of the Mode of Action of ET-743. The Oncologist, Vol. 7, No. 3, 210-216

Shwartzmann, G. (2001) Marine Organisms as a source new anticancer agents. The Lancet Oncology. 2: 221-225.

Cont. Photos: Introductory page.

Coral - http://www.pharmaasia.com/article-5858-marinenaturalproductsandantagonisticpropertiesofmarineorganismsforhumanhealth-Asia.html

Sea Squirt - http://www.marinebiotech.org/biomed.html Environment Canada.

http://waterquality.ec.gc.ca/WaterQualityWeb/CABINBenthicData.aspx?stationId=CLB05198&lang=FR&Year=1998&SampleNumber=1&Taxa=Porifera

Diagram page 4 - http://www.pharmaasia.com/article-5858-marinenaturalproductsandantagonisticpropertiesofmarineorganismsforhumanhealth-Asia.html

Bryozoa - http://dic.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/72/Haeckel_Bryozoa.jpg

Porifera (sponges) - http://waterquality.ec.gc.ca/WaterQualityWeb/CABINBenthicData.aspx?stationId=CLB05198&lang=FR&Year=1998&SampleNumber=1&Taxa=Porifera

Photos: Carribean Sponge:

http://reefcolors.net/Galleries/2006_MariaLaGorda/content/bin/images/large/TG_124_19.jpg

Cytarabine http://www.drugs.com/pro/images/lbc2fa221-ea56-48b8-8304-42cd81b8463b/cytarabine-02.jpg

Bryostatin http://www.copewithcytokines.de/bryostatin.gif

Bugula neritina http://www.serc.si.edu/labs/benthic_ecology/images/Bugula%20neritina.jpg

Bugula neritina http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8zvjGfjw3XA/RfwU73bQYSI/AAAAAAAAAF4/T368OaVNOnQ/s400/Bugula_neritina%5B1%5D.jpg