Review

. 2019 Aug 23;17(9):491.

doi: 10.3390/md17090491.

Marine Natural Products: A Source of Novel Anticancer Drugs

Shaden A M Khalifa^{1

2}, Nizar Elias³, Mohamed A Farag^{4

5}, Lei Chen⁶, Aamer Saeed⁷, Mohamed-Elamir F Hegazy^{8

9}, Moustafa S Moustafa¹⁰, Aida Abd El-Wahed¹⁰, Saleh M Al-Mousawi¹⁰, Syed G Musharraf¹¹, Fang-Rong Chang¹², Arihiro Iwasaki¹³, Kiyotake Suenaga¹³, Muaaz Alajlani^{14

15}, Ulf Göransson¹⁵, Hesham R El-Seedi^{16

17

18

19}

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Research Centre, Karolinska University Hospital, Novum, 14157 Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden.
² Department of Molecular Biosciences, the Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, SE 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kalamoon, P.O. Box 222 Dayr Atiyah, Syria.
⁴ Pharmacognosy Department, College of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr el Aini St., P.B. 11562 Cairo, Egypt.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, School of Sciences & Engineering, The American University in Cairo, 11835 New Cairo, Egypt.
⁶ College of Food Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.
⁷ Department of Chemitry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
⁸ Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Staudingerweg 5, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
⁹ Chemistry of Medicinal Plants Department, National Research Centre, 33 El-Bohouth St., Dokki, 12622 Giza, Egypt.
¹⁰ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Kuwait, 13060 Safat, Kuwait.
¹¹ H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan.
¹² Graduate Institute of Natural Products, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
¹³ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan.
¹⁴ Department of Pharmaceutical Biology/Pharmacognosy, Institute of Pharmacy, University of HalleWittenberg, Hoher Weg 8, DE 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany.
¹⁵ Pharmacognosy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, Box 574, SE-75 123 Uppsala, Sweden.
¹⁶ Pharmacognosy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, Box 574, SE-75 123 Uppsala, Sweden. hesham.el-seedi@ilk.uu.se.
¹⁷ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, 32512 Shebin El-Koom, Egypt. hesham.el-seedi@ilk.uu.se.
¹⁸ College of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China. hesham.el-seedi@ilk.uu.se.
¹⁹ Al-Rayan Research and Innovation Center, Al-Rayan Colleges, 42541 Medina, Saudi Arabia. hesham.el-seedi@ilk.uu.se.

PMID: 31443597
PMCID: PMC6780632
DOI: 10.3390/md17090491

Review

Marine Natural Products: A Source of Novel Anticancer Drugs

Shaden A M Khalifa et al. Mar Drugs. 2019.

. 2019 Aug 23;17(9):491.

doi: 10.3390/md17090491.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Research Centre, Karolinska University Hospital, Novum, 14157 Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden.
² Department of Molecular Biosciences, the Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, SE 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kalamoon, P.O. Box 222 Dayr Atiyah, Syria.
⁴ Pharmacognosy Department, College of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr el Aini St., P.B. 11562 Cairo, Egypt.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, School of Sciences & Engineering, The American University in Cairo, 11835 New Cairo, Egypt.
⁶ College of Food Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.
⁷ Department of Chemitry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
⁸ Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Staudingerweg 5, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
⁹ Chemistry of Medicinal Plants Department, National Research Centre, 33 El-Bohouth St., Dokki, 12622 Giza, Egypt.
¹⁰ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Kuwait, 13060 Safat, Kuwait.
¹¹ H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan.
¹² Graduate Institute of Natural Products, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
¹³ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan.
¹⁴ Department of Pharmaceutical Biology/Pharmacognosy, Institute of Pharmacy, University of HalleWittenberg, Hoher Weg 8, DE 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany.
¹⁵ Pharmacognosy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, Box 574, SE-75 123 Uppsala, Sweden.
¹⁶ Pharmacognosy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, Box 574, SE-75 123 Uppsala, Sweden. hesham.el-seedi@ilk.uu.se.
¹⁷ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, 32512 Shebin El-Koom, Egypt. hesham.el-seedi@ilk.uu.se.
¹⁸ College of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China. hesham.el-seedi@ilk.uu.se.
¹⁹ Al-Rayan Research and Innovation Center, Al-Rayan Colleges, 42541 Medina, Saudi Arabia. hesham.el-seedi@ilk.uu.se.

PMID: 31443597
PMCID: PMC6780632
DOI: 10.3390/md17090491

Abstract

Cancer remains one of the most lethal diseases worldwide. There is an urgent need for new drugs with novel modes of action and thus considerable research has been conducted for new anticancer drugs from natural sources, especially plants, microbes and marine organisms. Marine populations represent reservoirs of novel bioactive metabolites with diverse groups of chemical structures. This review highlights the impact of marine organisms, with particular emphasis on marine plants, algae, bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, sponges and soft corals. Anti-cancer effects of marine natural products in in vitro and in vivo studies were first introduced; their activity in the prevention of tumor formation and the related compound-induced apoptosis and cytotoxicities were tackled. The possible molecular mechanisms behind the biological effects are also presented. The review highlights the diversity of marine organisms, novel chemical structures, and chemical property space. Finally, therapeutic strategies and the present use of marine-derived components, its future direction and limitations are discussed.

Keywords: anticancer; antitumor; clinical trials; cytotoxic; drugs; marine; microorganism; plants.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

**Figure 1**
(A) Estimated new cancer cases in the worldwide based on Global Cancer (GLOBOCAN)2018. (B) Estimated cancer death in the worldwide based on GLOBOCAN 2018. (C) Estimated number of new cancer cases in different world areas based on GLOBOCAN 2018.

**Figure 2**
Natural sources for cancer control.

**Figure 3**
Marine drugs and compounds used in clinical trials, its sources and chemical classes.

**Figure 4**
Polyphenolic anti-cancer compounds of marine organisms.

**Figure 5**
Polysaccharides of marine organisms against cancer.

**Figure 6**
Alkaloids from marine organisms for anticancer.

**Figure 7**
Anticancer peptides from marine organisms.

**Figure 8**
Clinical compounds and drugs from marine organisms used in cancer treatment.

**Figure 9**
Marine compounds plotted as red, orange, green and blue spheres indicating peptide, polyphenols, polysaccharides and alkaloids respectively. PCs; the red box indicates, PC1, the yellow box indicates, PC2, and the green box indicates, PC3.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Marine Natural Products: A Source of Novel Anticancer Drugs

Affiliations

Marine Natural Products: A Source of Novel Anticancer Drugs

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources