Discovery and Biochemical Profiling of Marine Drugs

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to our Special Issue of Pharmaceuticals journal, entitled “Discovery and Biochemical Profiling of Marine Drugs”.

This Special Issue will feature a selection of recent research topics and current review articles, reporting the latest updates on the discovery and profiling of new classes of biocompounds from marine organisms used to create novel marine medicines or pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics for health. Marine organisms are still underexploited bioresources for active compounds that can be better exploited for the development of a circular bioeconomy. They represent a sustainable source for obtaining natural bioactive extracts through conventional and environmentally friendly techniques. The isolation and characterisation of bioactive compounds from marine organisms reveal physicochemical, biochemical, structural, and biological properties that can be useful to obtain new therapeutically active products with valuable biomedical food and cosmetic benefits and applications. There are many interesting research directions for obtaining marine drugs and to benefit from biocompound resources for the pharmaceutical and medical fields such as collagen, gelatin, collagen peptides, and amino acids from marine organisms. Collagen compounds of marine origin provide safety benefits and better bioavailability compared to collagen compounds of animal origin. Skin and waste from fish and jellyfish are marine resources that are still under-utilised. The benefits of these biocompounds are multiple due to their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, tissue regeneration and wound repair, anti-aging, and skin rejuvenation properties, and are used as cartilage scaffolds for implants, gels, membranes, wound dressings, and medical materials, which are just few of their applications. Other classes of biocompounds of interest to the pharmaceutical and medical fields are carbohydrates (oligo- and polysaccharides) from marine algae or other organisms such as chitin and chitosan from marine crabs, which have applications in tissue regeneration, wound repair, and skin repair after major burns. Interest in marine carbohydrates is supported by their beneficial antioxidant, antimicrobial, hypoglycaemic, immunological, anticancer, and neurodegenerative actions. Lipid compounds extracted from fish or other marine organisms as well as phenolic and flavonic compounds, pigments and chlorophylls of marine origin, and dietary fibres from seaweed support antioxidant, anti-aging, hypoglycaemic, anti-cancer, and neurological actions. Alongside marine collagen products, minerals, vitamins, and lipid compounds from marine organisms have garnered increasing interest in skin health, known for their moisturising and anti-aging properties, natural pigments, and skin protection against UV radiation. It is important to note that although marine organisms offer many potential benefits for new marine medicines, further research and development is needed to fully understand their mechanisms of action and to optimise their use in pharmaceuticals, cosmeceuticals, and nutraceuticals. In addition, sustainability practices should be considered to ensure their responsible harvesting.

Prof. Dr. Rodica Sîrbu
Prof. Dr. Ticuta Negreanu-Pirjol
Dr. Emin Cadar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pharmaceuticals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• marine bioactive compounds
• marine organisms
• collagen
• gelatin
• chitin
• chitosan
• oligosaccharides
• polysaccharides
• polyphenols
• marine lipid compounds
• vitamins
• natural pigments
• dietary fibres
• skin health protection