Ecteinascidia turbinata

The majority of promising drug candidates emerging from marine natural products research to date are potential cancer treatments. Six anti-cancer compounds that are either marine natural products or synthetic analogs of marine natural products have made it to clinical trials. The first of these compounds to enter clinical trials was didemnin B (43), one of a family of cyclic depsipetides isolated from the Caribbean tunicate Trididemnum solidum Didemnin B was advanced to Phase II clinical trials for treatment of small cell lung cancer, myeloma, prostate cancer, and melanoma. Unfortunately, no favorable responses were found so the compound has been withdrawn. Crude extracts of another Caribbean tunicate, Ecteinascidia turbinata, showed extremely... 

Pommier Y, Kohlagen G BaiUy C, Waring M, Mazumder A, Kohn K. (1996) DNA sequence- and structure-selective alkylation of guanine N2 in the DNA minor groove by ecteinascidin 743, a potent antitumor compound from the Caribbean tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata. Biochemistry 35 13303-13309. 

Rinehart KL, Holt TG, Fiegeau NL, Stroh JG, Keifer PA, Sun F, Li LH, Martin DG (2002) Ecteinascidins 729, 743, 745, 759A, 759B, and 770 potent antitumor agents from the Caribbean tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata. J Org Chem 55(15) 4512-4515... 

The in vivo antitumour activity of extracts of the tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata was noted in the late 1960s [152] but the active metabolites were only isolated and identified much later by two research groups. These complex alkaloids were termed the ecteinascidins and are... 

The ecteinascidins constitute a group of very complex alkaloid tris(tetrahydroisoquinolines) with potent in vivo antitumor activity and were isolated from the colonian Caribbean tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata. The compounds are abbreviated as Et followed by a number that represents the value of the highest mass ion observed in the (+)-FABMS. Reports of the potent in vivo activity of extracts of that tunicate date back to 1969, when it was reported that such extracts gave T/C values of up to 272 vs P388, with four of six cures in one experiment, and they were also found to be powerful immunomodulators [72]. After a decade of effort, two research groups reported at the same time the structures of four [Et 743 (1), Et 729 (63), Et 745 (64), and Et 770 (66)] [72] and two [Et 743 (1), Et 729(63)] [73] ecteinascidins, respectively. The development of an isolation process that was efficient on a large scale allowed Rinehart s group to obtain additional ecteinascidins, Et 743 V2-oxide (67), Et 722... 

Young, C. M. and Bingham, B. L., Chemical defense and aposematic coloration in larvae of the ascidian Ecteinascidia turbinata, Mar. Biol., 96, 539, 1987. 

Ecteinascidia turbinata Larva Ascidians Lecithotrophic Fish 49... 

Bingham, B.L. and Young, C.M., Larval behavior of the ascidian Ecteinascidia turbinata Herdman an in situ experimental study of the effects of swimming on dispersal, J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol., 145, 189, 1991. 

Trabectedin is probably produced in Nature by an producing tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata. as yet uncultured microbe in the nominal... 

Ecteinascidin-743 (ET-743, 16, Figure 2.4) is a tetrahydroisoquinolone alkaloid isolated from Ecteinascidia turbinata Herdman, a tunicate that grows on mangrove roots throughout the Caribbean Sea [154]. Most likely, the compound is produced by the marine tunicate as a defense mechanism to survive in its natural environment [155]. 

Wright AE, Forleo DA, Gunawardana GP, Gunasekera SP, Koehn FE, McConnell OJ. Antitumor tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids from the colonial ascidian Ecteinascidia turbinata. J. Org. Chem. 1990 55 4508-4512. 

Koehn PE, McConnell OJ. Antitumor tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids from the colonial ascidian Ecteinascidia turbinata. J. Org. 

Three new oxepin-containing natural products oxepinamides A-C 166-168 and two new fumiquinazoline metabolites fumiquinazolines H-I 169-170 were isolated from organic extracts of the culture broth and mycelia of Acremonium sp., a fungus obtained from the surface of the Caribbean tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata Compound 166 exhibited good anti-inflammatory activity in a topical RTX-induced mouse ear edema assay. Compounds 169 and 170 both exhibited weak anti-fungal activity towards Candida albicans in a broth microdilution assay. Total... 

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