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Review
. 2020 Dec 4;18(12):619.
doi: 10.3390/md18120619.

Marine Anticancer Agents: An Overview with a Particular Focus on Their Chemical Classes

Marilia Barreca  1   2 , Virginia Spanò  1 , Alessandra Montalbano  1 , Mercedes Cueto  3 , Ana R Díaz Marrero  4 , Irem Deniz  5 , Ayşegül Erdoğan  6 , Lada Lukić Bilela  7 , Corentin Moulin  8 , Elisabeth Taffin-de-Givenchy  8 , Filippo Spriano  2 , Giuseppe Perale  9   10 , Mohamed Mehiri  8 , Ana Rotter  11 , Olivier P Thomas  12 , Paola Barraja  1 , Susana P Gaudêncio  13 , Francesco Bertoni  2   14
Affiliations
Review

Marine Anticancer Agents: An Overview with a Particular Focus on Their Chemical Classes

Marilia Barreca et al. Mar Drugs. .

Abstract

The marine environment is a rich source of biologically active molecules for the treatment of human diseases, especially cancer. The adaptation to unique environmental conditions led marine organisms to evolve different pathways than their terrestrial counterparts, thus producing unique chemicals with a broad diversity and complexity. So far, more than 36,000 compounds have been isolated from marine micro- and macro-organisms including but not limited to fungi, bacteria, microalgae, macroalgae, sponges, corals, mollusks and tunicates, with hundreds of new marine natural products (MNPs) being discovered every year. Marine-based pharmaceuticals have started to impact modern pharmacology and different anti-cancer drugs derived from marine compounds have been approved for clinical use, such as: cytarabine, vidarabine, nelarabine (prodrug of ara-G), fludarabine phosphate (pro-drug of ara-A), trabectedin, eribulin mesylate, brentuximab vedotin, polatuzumab vedotin, enfortumab vedotin, belantamab mafodotin, plitidepsin, and lurbinectedin. This review focuses on the bioactive molecules derived from the marine environment with anticancer activity, discussing their families, origin, structural features and therapeutic use.

Keywords: anticancer; clinical pipeline; drug discovery; marine drugs; marine natural products.

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Conflict of interest statement

F.B.: institutional research funds from Acerta, ADC Therapeutics, Bayer AG, Cellestia, CTI Life Sciences, EMD Serono, Helsinn, ImmunoGen, Menarini Ricerche, NEOMED Therapeutics 1, Nordic Nanovector ASA, Oncology Therapeutic Development, PIQUR Therapeutics AG; consultancy fee from Helsinn, Menarini; expert statements provided to HTG; travel grants from Amgen, Astra Zeneca, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, PIQUR Therapeutics AG. All the other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Drugs developed from natural sources, their biological sources, chemical structures and treatment usage.
Figure 2
Figure 2
New species discovery rate, according to data available in the World Register of Marine Species. Orange and right Y-axis, number of discovered species; blue dots and left Y-axis, cumulative number of discovered species; X-axis, years. Data extracted from http://www.marinespecies.org, accessed in June 2020.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Ara-nucleosides structures and total cytarabine synthesis.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Marine-derived macrolides. The right macrolactone portion is essential to obtain halichondrin B-like activity. The C19–C20 region and the O26 of bryostatins are crucial in conferring biological response.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Marine peptides and their derivatives of pharmacological relevance.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Marine alkaloids and their synthetic derivatives.
Figure 7
Figure 7
γ-lactam-β-lactone products of the salinosporamide family.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Fucoidan chemical structure is composed of a backbone of α-linked l-fucose residues with various substitutions including hydroxyl, methyl and sulfate ester groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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