Mariculture of marine sponges for drug development : bioactivityudpotentials of cultured sponges, Callyspongia subarmigeraud(Ridley) and Echinodictyum gorgonoides (Dendy)

摘要

Among all metazoan phyla, marine sponges areudconsidered as the richest source of biologically andudpharmacologically active chemicals. More thanud5,300 different products are recorded from spongesudand their associated microorganisms. Every year,udabout 200 new metabolites are reported fromudsponges. Considering the emerging diseases andudthe rapid development of disease resistance amongudmicrobes, the detection of novel metabolites fromudsponges gains importance and also provides scopeudfor developing new drugs against disease causingudbacteria, virus, fungi and parasites. In nature, theudchemical interactions in the marine habitat ofudsponges suggest that products from them functionudas defense tools to protect them against predatorsudincluding fish. Sponge product ara-A (vidarabine),udthe anti-viral drug used against the Herpes simplexudencephalitis virus has advanced to the late stagesudof clinical trials.