Marine Compounds as Sources of Chemotherapeutics

Abstract

Marine organisms have been recognized as a source for new anticancer natural
products since the availability of ara-C, a sponge-derived nucleoside, for the treatment of
acute myeloid leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Later, searches for new
marinederived compounds have been world widely explored to develop potential anticancer
agents such as dolastatins, bryostatins, didemnins, aplidins, kalahalides, and ecteinascidins.
In this presentation, we also discuss the investigation of two highly cytotoxic
tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids, including renieramycins and ecteinascidins from the Thai
sponge Xestospongia sp. and the Thai ascidian Ecteinascidia thurstoni, respectively. With
large quantities of these natural products in hand, chemical transformations and the structurecytoxicity
relationships of these compounds have been studied for further development of
these cytotoxic alkaloids as new anticancer agents from in-the-sea farming Thai marine
organisms.