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Review
. 2021 May 19;3(4):488-518.
doi: 10.1007/s42995-021-00101-2. eCollection 2021 Nov.

The intriguing chemistry and biology of sulfur-containing natural products from marine microorganisms (1987-2020)

Yang Hai  1   2 , Mei-Yan Wei  1   3 , Chang-Yun Wang  1   2 , Yu-Cheng Gu  4 , Chang-Lun Shao  1   2
Affiliations
Review

The intriguing chemistry and biology of sulfur-containing natural products from marine microorganisms (1987-2020)

Yang Hai et al. Mar Life Sci Technol. .

Abstract

Natural products derived from marine microorganisms have received great attention as a potential resource of new compound entities for drug discovery. The unique marine environment brings us a large group of sulfur-containing natural products with abundant biological functionality including antitumor, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and antiviral activities. We reviewed all the 484 sulfur-containing natural products (non-sulfated) isolated from marine microorganisms, of which 59.9% are thioethers, 29.8% are thiazole/thiazoline-containing compounds and 10.3% are sulfoxides, sulfones, thioesters and many others. A selection of 133 compounds was further discussed on their structure-activity relationships, mechanisms of action, biosynthesis, and druggability. This is the first systematic review on sulfur-containing natural products from marine microorganisms conducted from January 1987, when the first one was reported, to December 2020.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42995-021-00101-2.

Keywords: Bioactivities; Marine drugs; Marine microorganisms; Molecular diversity; Sulfur-containing natural products.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Representatives of sulfur-containing drugs
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Representatives of thioethers compounds
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Representatives of thiazole/thiazoline-containing compounds
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Representatives of other compounds
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
The chemical structures of representative drugs entering clinical studies, natural product and natural product derivatives
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
The chemical structures of dolastatin 10, symplostatin 1 and brentuximab vedotin
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Statistics of sulfur-containing natural products (non-sulfated) from marine microorganisms from 1987 to 2020
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Biological activity distribution of active sulfur-containing natural products from marine microorganisms from 1987 to 2020
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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