Marine organisms drug discovery

Despite all the contributions that microorganisms have made to the development of new drugs and all the promise held by marine organisms for such purposes, many researchers still count primarily on plants as the most likely source for the discovery of new drugs. 

It is well known that plants are an exceptional source of biologically active products which may serve as commercially significant entities in themselves, and which may provide lead structures for development of modified derivatives possessing enhanced activity and reduced toxicity. It is likely that many compounds still await discovery. However, in the last decade the source of natural drugs has expanded to include lower plants, microorganisms and animals as well as marine organisms. 

Traditional approaches for natural product screening in drug discovery involve the testing of crude extracts obtained from microbial fermentation broths, plants, or marine organisms. When activity above a certain level is detected, active components are isolated and purified for identification. This process is often time consuming where the physicochemical characteristics of the active components are determined, known compounds are identified (dereplication), and the novel compounds are scaled-up for more detailed investigation. 

Isolation and chemical characterization of TA started in the early nineteenth century (e.g. hyoscyamine in 1833 scopolamine in 1881 cocaine in 1862 [1]) thus representing early examples of pharmacognosy, which denominates the discovery of drugs from medicinal plants, fungi, bacteria and marine organisms [1, 8],... 

ITie large number of microbial agents reflects the major role played by the pharmaceutical industry in this area of drug discovery and development. Generally, industry has focused on the Actinomycetales, but expansion of research efforts, often supported by government funding, to the study of organisms from diverse environments, such as shallow and deep marine ecosystems and deep terrestrial subsurface layers, has demonstrated their potential as a source of novel bioactive metabolites. ... 

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