Marine-Derived Terpenes: Chemistry, Synthesis and Their Therapeutic Potential

A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397). This special issue belongs to the section "Synthesis and Medicinal Chemistry of Marine Natural Products".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 May 2025 | Viewed by 2733

Special Issue Editors

Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen, China
Interests: marine fungi; natural products; metabolomics; molecular network; diterpenoid

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Guest Editor
School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
Interests: synthetic biology; natural products engineering; microbial cell factories; yeast engineering; bioprocess optimization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The ocean is increasingly recognized as a significant source of natural compounds. Terpenes have garnered significant attention due to their widespread occurrence in marine organisms and their diverse biological activities.

This Special Issue will comprehensively present the latest discoveries and progress of marine terpenes, focusing on the discovery of terpenes, their chemical structures, biological activities, and therapeutic potential, as well as the synthesis and biosynthetic research of important terpenes.

Studies on the isolation, structural elucidation, and biosynthetic pathways of marine terpenes, as well as the synthetic strategies for terpenes are encouraged to be submitted. We also welcome contributions that focus on the anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and other biological activities of marine terpenes, as well as their potential use in drug discovery and development.

For this Special Issue, we invite academic and industry scientists to submit reviews and original and conceptual research articles highlighting the advancements of known or novel marine terpenes.

Dr. Jinmei Xia
Dr. Wenhai Xiao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • marine
  • terpene
  • structure elucidation
  • biosynthetic pathway
  • synthetic method
  • bioactivity
  • therapeutic application
  • anticancer
  • antimicrobial

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 2011 KiB  
Communication
Cytotoxic Pentaketide-Sesquiterpenes from the Marine-Derived Fungus Talaromyces variabilis M22734
by Lingzhi Tang, Jinmei Xia, Zhongwei Chen, Xiaohui Wu, Guangyu Li, Qiliang Lai, Zongze Shao, Weiyi Wang and Xuan Hong
Mar. Drugs 2024, 22(6), 274; https://doi.org/10.3390/md22060274 - 13 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1331
Abstract
Talaromyces, a filamentous fungus widely distributed across terrestrial and marine environments, can produce a diverse array of natural products, including alkaloids, polyketones, and polyketide-terpenoids. Among these, chrodrimanins represented a typical class of natural products. In this study, we isolated three previously undescribed [...] Read more.
Talaromyces, a filamentous fungus widely distributed across terrestrial and marine environments, can produce a diverse array of natural products, including alkaloids, polyketones, and polyketide-terpenoids. Among these, chrodrimanins represented a typical class of natural products. In this study, we isolated three previously undescribed pentaketide-sesquiterpenes, 8,9-epi-chrodrimanins (13), along with eight known compounds (411). The structures of compounds 13 were elucidated using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS), while their absolute configurations were determined through X-ray crystallography and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) computations. The biosynthetic pathways of compounds 13 initiate with 6-hydroxymellein and involve multiple stages of isoprenylation, cyclization, oxidation, and acetylation. We selected four strains of gastrointestinal cancer cells for activity evaluation. We found that compound 3 selectively inhibited MKN-45, whereas compounds 1 and 2 exhibited no significant inhibitory activity against the four cell lines. These findings suggested that 8,9-epi-chrodrimanins could serve as scaffold compounds for further structural modifications, potentially leading to the development of targeted therapies for gastric cancer. Full article
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23 pages, 10914 KiB  
Article
Development and Validation of a Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry Method for Screening Potential Citrate Lyase Inhibitors from a Library of Marine Compounds
by Jiahong Wang, Huashi Guan and Zhe Xu
Mar. Drugs 2024, 22(6), 245; https://doi.org/10.3390/md22060245 - 27 May 2024
Viewed by 1104
Abstract
Tuberculosis, a persistent illness caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, remains a significant global public health challenge. The widespread use of anti-tuberculosis drugs has resulted in the emergence of drug-resistant strains, which complicates treatment efforts. Addressing this issue is crucial and hinges on the [...] Read more.
Tuberculosis, a persistent illness caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, remains a significant global public health challenge. The widespread use of anti-tuberculosis drugs has resulted in the emergence of drug-resistant strains, which complicates treatment efforts. Addressing this issue is crucial and hinges on the development of new drugs that can effectively target the disease. This involves identifying novel therapeutic targets that can disrupt the bacterium’s survival mechanisms in various environments such as granulomas and lesions. Citrate lyase, essential for the survival of Mycobacterium species at lesion sites and in granulomatous conditions, is a potential target for the treatment of tuberculosis. This manuscript aimed to construct an efficient enzyme inhibitor screening platform using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF MS). This system can accurately identify compounds with enzyme inhibitory activity from a library of marine terpenoids and phenolic compounds. Utilizing the screened herbal enzyme inhibitors as a starting point, we analyzed their chemical structures and skillfully built a library of marine compounds based on these structures. The results showed that all of the tested compounds from the phenolics library inhibited citrate lyase by more than 50%, and a significant portion of terpenoids also demonstrated inhibition, with these active terpenoids comprising over half of the terpenoids tested. The study underscores the potential of marine-derived phenolic and terpenoid compounds as potent inhibitors of citrate lyase, indicating a promising direction for future investigations in treating tuberculosis and associated disorders. Full article
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