TY - JOUR
T1 - Bright spots in the darkness of cancer: A review of starfishes-derived compounds and their anti-tumor action
AU - Luparello, Claudio
AU - Vazzana, Mirella
AU - Mauro, Manuela
AU - Arizza, Vincenzo
AU - Lazzara, Valentina
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - The fight against cancer represents a great challenge for researchers and, for this reason, the search for new promising drugs to improve cancer treatments has become inevitable. Oceans, due to their wide diversity of marine species and environmental conditions have proven to be precious sources of potential natural drugs with active properties. As an example, in this context several studies performed on sponges, tunicates, mollusks, and soft corals have brought evidence of the interesting biological activities of the molecules derived from these species. Also, echinoderms constitute an important phylum, whose members produce a huge number of compounds with diverse biological activities. In particular, this review is the first attempt to summarize the knowledge about starfishes and their secondary metabolites that exhibited a significant anticancer effect against different human tumor cell lines. For each species of starfish, the extracted molecules, their effects, and mechanisms of action are described.
AB - The fight against cancer represents a great challenge for researchers and, for this reason, the search for new promising drugs to improve cancer treatments has become inevitable. Oceans, due to their wide diversity of marine species and environmental conditions have proven to be precious sources of potential natural drugs with active properties. As an example, in this context several studies performed on sponges, tunicates, mollusks, and soft corals have brought evidence of the interesting biological activities of the molecules derived from these species. Also, echinoderms constitute an important phylum, whose members produce a huge number of compounds with diverse biological activities. In particular, this review is the first attempt to summarize the knowledge about starfishes and their secondary metabolites that exhibited a significant anticancer effect against different human tumor cell lines. For each species of starfish, the extracted molecules, their effects, and mechanisms of action are described.
KW - Anti-cancer activity
KW - Marine invertebrates
KW - Molecular drugs
KW - Natural compounds
KW - Sea-star
KW - Anti-cancer activity
KW - Marine invertebrates
KW - Molecular drugs
KW - Natural compounds
KW - Sea-star
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10447/383711
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/17/11/617/pdf
M3 - Article
VL - 17
SP - 617-
JO - Marine Drugs
JF - Marine Drugs
SN - 1660-3397
ER -