Marine-Derived Products in Oncology: From Ocean Biodiversity to Cancer Therapeutics

Sunita Kode, Tejswini Gaikwad, Rashee Shahu, Shivcharan Kamble, Pooja Rasal,

doi:10.5281/zenodo.18291225

Review Paper | Open Access
Volume 03 | Issue 01 | Article Id IJSRT/260401046

Marine-Derived Products in Oncology: From Ocean Biodiversity to Cancer Therapeutics
Sunita Kode* Tejswini Gaikwad Rashee Shahu Shivcharan Kamble Pooja Rasal
Department of Pharmacology, JES’s SND College of Pharmacy, Babhulgaon (Yeola), India

Abstract

Marine ecosystems represent an immense and largely untapped reservoir of biologically active compounds with significant therapeutic potential. Owing to extreme environmental conditions, marine organisms such as bacteria, fungi, algae, sponges, tunicates, mollusks, and corals produce unique secondary metabolites with diverse chemical structures and potent biological activities. This review highlights the role of marine biodiversity as a promising source of anticancer agents, emphasizing major marine-derived compounds including alkaloids, flavonoids, polysaccharides, terpenoids, peptides, steroids, and glycosides. Several marine natural products, such as cytarabine, trabectedin, eribulin, and brentuximab vedotin, have already been approved for clinical use, while many others are currently in preclinical and clinical development. The mechanisms of anticancer action of these compounds include induction of apoptosis, inhibition of cell proliferation, angiogenesis suppression, immune modulation, and interference with DNA and microtubule dynamics. Despite their immense potential, challenges such as low natural yield, structural complexity, limited technical infrastructure, and high development costs hinder their large-scale application. Nevertheless, advances in biotechnology, synthetic chemistry, and drug delivery systems are paving the way for the successful development of marine-derived anticancer therapeutics, reinforcing the ocean as a valuable frontier for future cancer drug discovery.

Keywords

Marine biodiversity, Marine-derived natural products, Anticancer compounds, Ecosystem, Apopptosis

Introduction

Marine ecosystems are made up of intricate communities of organisms such as bacteria, protozoans, algae, chromists, plants, fungi, and animals. They exist in a restricted space of an aquatic Saline environment: The saline environment constitutes 71% of the earth’s surface and holds 90% of the earth’s biosphere. Marine biotopes possess a highly diverse biodiversity, which is seen as a virtually unlimited source of bioactive compounds [1]. Furthermore, the marine ecosystem is known for being a very challenging severe and exposed to potentially life-threatening environments such as absence of light, absence of nutrients, pH and currents, unstable climate conditions, and attacked by predators. This is why marine organisms. These are the adaptive mechanisms and symbiotic interactions, among others, that have been adopted and result in unexpected biochemical reaction routes with an astonishingly broad spectrum of metabolites, secondary metabolites, and toxins [2]. Natural products are anything that can be made by life, such as biotic": The description given materials, bio-based materials, body fluids (like milk and plant exudates) and other natural materials. Small molecules produced by living organisms such as plants, Invertebrates, and Bacteria: These compounds produced by invertebrates, Though these were not required for life support functions, they were also considered as secondary metabolites and play an important role in defence and cell-to-cell communication. For thousands of years, the natural world has been the provider of medicine, and the efcations that have been obtained from plant materials [3]. Marine life can be contrasted with plants on land and non-marine microbes, marine organisms can be viewed as the most recent source of bioactive natural compounds. In the report by Bergmann and Feeny on the isolation of the novel nucleosides spongouridine and spongo the sponge Cryptotethya crypta, where it acted as lead. The structures for antiviral agents such as Ara-A, marine natural products the chemistry of the product was developed. Prostaglandins were only recently discovered to be significant mediators of the human body, so Wein Heimer and Spragginsthe discovery of pros-taglandins of the Caribbean gorgonian Plexaura hom more than a decade later was an inspiration in the explore new medicines found in the sea. A small sympsium with the grand title Drugs from the Sea was conducted in Rhode Island, USA, in 1967. It is the first academic sympsium on developing drugs from natural ingredients [4]. Among marine organisms, macroalgae are prominent due to their various bioactive producers. compounds that interfere with the course of cancer development via multiple mechanisms [5]. For instance, fucoidan, a sulfated polysaccharide from brown algae, has demonstrated anti-Tumor properties by inhibiting angiogenesis and inducing apoptosis. Other compounds from red and green algae have also been demonstrated to inhibit cell-cycle progression and increase immune responses, which has further supported their potentials in cancer therapy [6,7]. Addition Not to be outdone are sponges, representing another rich source of bioactive compounds and yielding molecules such as Halichondrin B, an inhibitor of cancer cell proliferation that has led to the development of the drugs derived have a very wide application, such as eribulin, which is used for the treatment of breast cancer [8]. Marine fungi contribute considerably to Bioactive pool, especially through the synthesis of secondary metabolites with (immunomodulatory and cytotoxic) effects against tumor cells. [9]. The first exploratory journey on the search of marine bioactive was initiated by Bergmann in the 1950s. Bergmann et al. reported the first discovery of two bioactive nucleosides, spongouridine and spongothymidine, extracted from the sponge Cryptotethia crypta [10]. These nucleosides represented the starting point for the synthesis of Ara-A and Ara-C (or Cytarabine). Importantly, Cytarabine has been the cornerstone treatment for acute myelogenous leukemia for more than thirty years [11,12].

2. Marine Biodiversity as a Source of Anticancer Compounds

Marine flora includes bacteria, actinobacteria, cyanobacteria, and fungi, which are also referred to as microflora are microalgae, macroalgae, mangroves, and other higher plants living in a marine environment. Of note that microflora and microalgae alone account for more than 90% of oceanic biomass [13]. Thus, whereas marine flora represents one of the richest sources of antitumoral drug candidates on this planet, however due to the lack of medical focus and efficient technologies of extraction, the real influence of flora from the sea is relatively unknown when compared with terrestrial sources concerning possibilities in the development of drugs against cancer flora [14] (Figure 1).