Indole alkaloids from marine sources as potential leads against infectious diseases.

Indole alkaloids comprise a large and complex class of natural products found in a variety of marine sources. Infectious diseases remain a major threat to public health, and in the absence of long-term protective vaccines, the control of these infectious diseases is based on a small number of chemotherapeutic agents. Furthermore, the emerging resistance against these drugs makes it urgently necessary to discover and develop new, safe and, effective anti-infective agents.