Pharmacologically Important Natural products from Marine Sponges

Present review describes research on novel natural pharmacological compounds isolated from marine sponges. More than 90 novel cytotoxic antitumor compounds and their synthetic analogs have shown confirmed activity in vitro tumor cell lines bioassay and are of current interest to NCI for further in vivo evaluation. A great problem, to use directly the reservoir of marine organisms for therapy is the very low availability and the isolation of only very small amounts of the biologically active substances from the natural materials. Sponges produce a wide array of secondary metabolites ranging from derivatives of amino acids and nucleosides to macrolides, porphyrins, terpenoids, aliphatic cyclic peroxides and sterols. The purpose of this article is to be present a structurally reviewed the pharmacological activities in marine sponge antitumor and cytotoxic properties of 143 marine natural products, many of them novel compounds that belongs to the family of porifera possessed the various species diverse structural classes, including polyketides, terpenes, steroids and peptides. Finally, this 2009 overview of the highlights the fact that the discovery of novel some pharmacologically important of novel naturally presented chemical compounds isolated from a wide variety of marine sponges. Naturally, the following pharmacological compounds such as Monomeric, oligomeric and polymeric 3-alkylpyridiniums, amino acids and nucleotides to macrolides, porphyrins, terpenoids to aliphatic cyclic peroxides and sterols, the majority of which are related to sponges and 3-alkylpyridines comprise a group of biologically active compounds found in several sponges. This review will present some of the aspects of the medicinal chemistry developed recently to introduce such modifications. The structures, origins, synthesis and biological activity of a selection of N-heterocyclic marine sponge alkaloids are reviewed. The emphasis is on compounds poised as potential anticancer drugs: pyrroles, pyrazines, imidazole, and other structural families.