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Review
. 2021 Sep 23;26(19):5769.
doi: 10.3390/molecules26195769.

Novel Marine Secondary Metabolites Worthy of Development as Anticancer Agents: A Review

Florence Nwakaego Mbaoji  1   2   3 , Justus Amuche Nweze  1   4   5   6 , Liyan Yang  7 , Yangbin Huang  1 , Shushi Huang  1 , Akachukwu Marytheresa Onwuka  3 , Ikechukwu Emmanuel Peter  3 , Cynthia Chioma Mbaoji  3 , Mingguo Jiang  8 , Yunkai Zhang  2 , Lixia Pan  7 , Dengfeng Yang  1
Affiliations
Review

Novel Marine Secondary Metabolites Worthy of Development as Anticancer Agents: A Review

Florence Nwakaego Mbaoji et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Secondary metabolites from marine sources have a wide range of biological activity. Marine natural products are promising candidates for lead pharmacological compounds to treat diseases that plague humans, including cancer. Cancer is a life-threatening disorder that has been difficult to overcome. It is a long-term illness that affects both young and old people. In recent years, significant attempts have been made to identify new anticancer drugs, as the existing drugs have been useless due to resistance of the malignant cells. Natural products derived from marine sources have been tested for their anticancer activity using a variety of cancer cell lines derived from humans and other sources, some of which have already been approved for clinical use, while some others are still being tested. These compounds can assault cancer cells via a variety of mechanisms, but certain cancer cells are resistant to them. As a result, the goal of this review was to look into the anticancer potential of marine natural products or their derivatives that were isolated from January 2019 to March 2020, in cancer cell lines, with a focus on the class and type of isolated compounds, source and location of isolation, cancer cell line type, and potency (IC50 values) of the isolated compounds that could be a guide for drug development.

Keywords: cancer; cancer cell line; drug development; lead optimization; marine secondary metabolites.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The structures of novel marine-derived alkaloid compounds cytotoxic to cancer cell lines at IC50 ≤ 1.0 µM.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The structures of novel marine-derived terpenes and terpenoid compounds cytotoxic to cancer cell lines at IC50 ≤ 1 µM.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The structures of novel marine-derived amino acid, peptide, and polyketide compounds cytotoxic to cancer cell lines at IC50 ≤ 1 µM.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The structure of other novel marine-derived compounds cytotoxic to cancer cell lines at IC50 ≤ 1 µM.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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