Bioactivities and Extract Dereplication of Isolated From Marine Sponges.

In the beginning of the twenty-first century, humanity faces great challenges regarding diseases and health-related quality of life. A drastic rise in bacterial antibiotic resistance, in the number of cancer patients, in the obesity epidemics and in chronic diseases due to life expectation extension are some of these challenges. The discovery of novel therapeutics is fundamental and it may come from underexplored environments, like marine habitats, and microbial origin. are well-known as treasure chests for the discovery of novel natural compounds. In this study, eighteen isolated from marine sponges of three genera collected in Portuguese waters were tested for bioactivities with the main goal of isolating and characterizing the responsible bioactive metabolites. The screening comprehended antimicrobial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, anti-cancer and anti-obesity properties. Fermentations of the selected strains were prepared using ten different culturing media. Several bioactivities against the fungus , the bacteria methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and the human liver cancer cell line HepG2 were obtained in small volume cultures. Screening in higher volumes showed consistent anti-fungal activity by strain sp. #91-17 and Berg02-26. sp. Berg02-22.2 showed anti-parasitic () and anti-cancer activity against several cell lines (melanoma A2058, liver HepG2, colon HT29, breast MCF7 and pancreatic MiaPaca). For the anti-obesity assay, #91-29 and #91-40 induced lipid reduction on the larvae of zebrafish (). Dereplication of the extracts from several bacteria showed the existence of a variety of secondary metabolites, with some undiscovered molecules. This work showed that are indeed good candidates for drug discovery.