review · Natural Products and Bioprospecting
Marine organisms such as sponges, corals, algae, and microorganisms provide a diverse reservoir of bioactive compounds with anticancer properties. Recent developments between 2019 and 2023 reveal that these marine natural products operate through multiple biological pathways. Key mechanisms include regulating the cell cycle, inducing apoptosis, inhibiting angiogenesis, and modulating cellular signalling. Advances in isolation methods, structural analysis, and chemical modification have helped improve the potency, selectivity, and pharmacological profiles of these compounds. Despite these positive developments, translating marine-derived candidates into therapeutic treatments continues to face notable hurdles. Sourcing adequate supplies, ensuring environmental sustainability, accomplishing chemical synthesis, and navigating clinical trials present ongoing difficulties. Continued investigation of marine environments remains critical for discovering novel agents to address unmet needs in oncology.
Cancer remains a major global health challenge requiring new therapeutic options. Marine biodiversity offers unique chemical structures that act on complex cellular mechanisms to target tumours. Understanding how to harvest, modify, and synthesise these marine natural products helps researchers overcome treatment resistance and develop next-generation oncology therapies, potentially leading to more targeted and effective cancer interventions.
This research informs early-stage drug discovery programmes within the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. Marine-derived compounds could enable the development of novel cancer therapeutics targeting specific biological pathways. However, these molecules remain largely at the discovery and preclinical optimisation stage, with practical commercialisation contingent on overcoming substantial barriers in large-scale chemical synthesis, sustainable raw material supply, and formal clinical translation.
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Marine natural products have long been recognized as a vast and diverse source of bioactive compounds with potential therapeutic applications, particularly in oncology. This review provides an updated overview of the significant advances made in the discovery and development of marine-derived anticancer drugs between 2019 and 2023. With a focus on recent research findings, the review explores the rich biodiversity of marine organisms, including sponges, corals, algae, and microorganisms, which have yielded numerous compounds exhibiting promising anticancer properties. Emphasizing the multifaceted mechanisms of action, the review discusses the molecular targets and pathways targeted by these compounds, such as cell cycle regulation, apoptosis induction, angiogenesis inhibition, and modulation of signaling pathways. Additionally, the review highlights the innovative strategies employed in the isolation, structural elucidation, and chemical modification of marine natural products to enhance their potency, selectivity, and pharmacological properties. Furthermore, it addresses the challenges and opportunities associated with the development of marine-derived anticancer drugs, including issues related to supply, sustainability, synthesis, and clinical translation. Finally, the review underscores the immense potential of marine natural products as a valuable reservoir of novel anticancer agents and advocates for continued exploration and exploitation of the marine environment to address the unmet medical needs in cancer therapy.
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DOI: 10.1007/s13659-024-00493-5
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