Marine Glycosides

In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the publication of papers on the chemistry, biology, and potential clinical uses of marine glycosides. Indeed, more than half of the papers published in this field are less than a decade old. Glycosides have been isolated from species as diverse as algae, fungi, anthozoans, and echinoderms. Even fish of the genus Pardachirus produce glycosides, which they use as shark repellents.The major interest in these compounds as potential drugs stems from their broad spectrum of biological effects. They have been shown to have antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, immune modulatory, and anticancer effects. The anticancer effects of marine glycosides include cell cycle suppression, the induction of apoptosis, and the inhibition of migration, invasion, and metastasis, as well as antiangiogenesis. Marine glycosides influence membrane permeability and have been shown to influence membrane transport at the molecular level through effects on transport carriers and pumps, as well as effects on ligand-gated and voltage-gated channels. Various marine glycosides have been shown to activate sphingomyelinase and ceramide synthesis, to inhibit topoisomerase activity, receptor tyrosine kinase activity, and multidrug resistance protein activity, and to antagonize eicosanoid receptors.This Special Issue covers the entire scope of marine organism-derived glycosides that are of potential value as pharmaceutical agents or leads. These include, but are not limited to, tetracyclic triterpene glycosides, other triterpene glycosides, steroid glycosides, and glycosides of non-isoprenoid aglycones.

In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the publication of papers on the chemistry, biology, and potential clinical uses of marine glycosides. Indeed, more than half of the papers published in this field are less than a decade old. Glycosides have been isolated from species as diverse as algae, fungi, anthozoans, and echinoderms. Even fish of the genus Pardachirus produce glycosides, which they use as shark repellents.false,The major interest in these compounds as potential drugs stems from their broad spectrum of biological effects. They have been shown to have antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, immune modulatory, and anticancer effects. The anticancer effects of marine glycosides include cell cycle suppression, the induction of apoptosis, and the inhibition of migration, invasion, and metastasis, as well as antiangiogenesis. Marine glycosides influence membrane permeability and have been shown to influence membrane transport at the molecular level through effects on transport carriers and pumps, as well as effects on ligand-gated and voltage-gated channels. Various marine glycosides have been shown to activate sphingomyelinase and ceramide synthesis, to inhibit topoisomerase activity, receptor tyrosine kinase activity, and multidrug resistance protein activity, and to antagonize eicosanoid receptors.false,This Special Issue covers the entire scope of marine organism-derived glycosides that are of potential value as pharmaceutical agents or leads. These include, but are not limited to, tetracyclic triterpene glycosides, other triterpene glycosides, steroid glycosides, and glycosides of non-isoprenoid aglycones.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Snake Venom Metalloproteinases" that was published in Toxins

Oceans include the greatest extremes of pressure, temperature and light, and habitats can range from tropical waters to ocean trenches, several kilometers below sea level at high pressure. With its 70% of the surface of our planet marine ecosystem still remains largely unexplored, understudied and underexploited in comparison with terrestrial ecosystems, organisms and bioprocesses. The biological adaptation of marine organisms to a wide range of environmental conditions in the specific environment (temperature, salinity, tides, pressure, radiation, light, etc.) has made them an enormous reservoir of interesting biological material for both basic research and biotechnological improvements. As a consequence marine ecosystem is valued as a source of enzymes and other biomolecules exhibiting new functions and activities to fulfill human needs. Indeed, in recent years it has been recognised as an untapped source of novel enzymes and metabolites even though, with regard to the assignment of precise biological functions to genes, proteins and enzymes, it is still considered as the least developed. Using metagenomics to recover genetic material directly from environmental samples, this biogenetic diversification can be accessed but despite the contributions from metagenomic technologies the new field requires major improvements. A few words on the complexity of marine environments should be added here. This complexity ranges from symbiotic relationships to biology and chemistry of defence mechanisms and from chemoecology of marine invasions up to the strategies found in prokaryotes to adapt to extreme environments. The interdisciplinary study of this complexity will enable researchers to find an arsenal of enzymes and pathways greatly demanded in biotechnological applications. As far as marine enzymes are concerned they may carry novel chemical and stereochemical properties, thus biocatalytically oriented studies (testing of suitable substrates, appropriate checking of reaction conditions, study of stereochemical asset of catalysis) should be performed to appropriately reveal this “chemical biodiversity” which increases interest for these enzymes. Among other biomolecules, polysaccharides are the most abundant renewable biomaterial found on land and in oceans. Their molecular diversity is very interesting; except polysaccharides used traditionally in food and non-food industries, the structure and the functionality of most of them are unknown and unexplored. Brown seaweeds synthesize unique bioactive polysaccharides: laminarans, alginic acids and fucoidans. A wide range of biological activities (anticoagulant, antitumor, antiviral, anti-inflammation, etc.) have been attributed to fucoidans and their role with respect to structure-activity relationship is still under debate. In this Research Topic, we wish to centralize and review contributions, idea and comments related to the issues above. In particular results of enzymatic bioprospecting in gross marine environment will be acknowledged along with research for structural characterization and biological function of biomolecules such as marine polysaccharides and all kind of research related to the complexity of bioprocesses in marine environments. Inter- and multi-disciplinary approach to this field is favoured in this Research Topic and could greatly be facilitated by the web and open access nature as well.

The books described marine glycoconjugates. Two articles concern microalgal metabolites such as steroid and sphingoid glycoconjugates, and a glycoprotein from a sea cucumber with interesting biological activities, respectively. One article discusses the fatty acid composition and thermotropic behavior of glycolipids and other membrane lipids of green macrophyte Ulva lactuca. Three articles cover lectin subjects. One review article analyzes perspectives of marine and freshwater lectins’ application in experimental oncology and the therapy of oncological diseases; another article describes the use of a sponge lectin in the construction of a recombinant virus. The third article concerns the function of the immunity of a lectin in producing this compound crinoid. Two articles concern steroid glycosides from starfish, and two others concern triterpene glycosides from sea cucumbers. One article describes the effect of a glycosaminoglycan from the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus on hyperglycemia in the liver of insulin-resistant mice. One article concerns the isolation of 10 new triterpene glycosides from a fungus associated with a sea cucumber. The article by Dworaczek et al. characterizes the O-specific polysaccharide (O-antigen) of a bacterial pathogen of common carp by chemical and immunochemical methods. In total, the Special Issue comprises14 articles, including the editorial and two reviews.

The interdisciplinary field of marine chemical ecology is an expanding and dynamic science. It is no surprise that the breadth of marine organisms studied expanded in concert with developments in underwater technology. With its up-to-date subject reviews by experts, Marine Chemical Ecology is the most current, comprehensive book on the subject. The

Marine glycobiology is an emerging and exciting area in the field of science and medicine. Glycobiology, the study of the structure and function of carbohydrates and carbohydrate-containing molecules, is fundamental to all biological systems and represents a developing field of science that has made huge advances in the last half-century. This book revolutionizes the concept of marine glycobiology, focusing on the latest principles and applications of marine glycobiology and their relationships.

Diverse and abundant, marine-derived bioactive compounds offer a plethora of pharmacologically active agents with the potential to produce valuable therapeutic entities. Marine-derived organisms, including some macroalgae, microalgae, blue-green algae, invertebrates, and vertebrates-valued in traditional Chinese medicine since ancient times-are now