Marine Natural Products as Sources of Antiviral, Antimicrobial, and Antineoplastic Agents

Résumé du livre

Extracts of marine species from Baja California and the Caribbean have been examined on shipboard for a variety of bioactivities and their constituents studied there by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. A very high proportion of the extracts has been shown to be cytotoxic, a high proportion to be antibacterial or antifungal and a surprisingly large number to be antiviral. Many of these activities have been confirmed in more extensive assays against tumor cells, pathogenic microorganisms and a battery of viruses. A number of the compounds responsible for the activities have been identified, including several new compounds. Of special current interest are the didemnins, depsipeptides isolated from a didemnid tunicate, which inhibit a number of RNA and DNA viruses and exhibit potent cytotoxicity vs. tumor cell lines.