Alcyonacea: A Potential Source for Production of Nitrogen-Containing Metabolites

Abstract

Alcyonacea (soft corals and gorgonia) are well known for their production of a wide array of unprecedented architecture of bioactive metabolites. This diversity of compounds reported from Alcyonacea confirms its productivity as a source of drug leads and, consequently, indicates requirement of further chemo-biological investigation. This review can be considered a roadmap to investigate the Alcyonacea, particularly those produce nitrogen-containing metabolites. It covers the era from the beginning of marine nitrogen-containing terpenoids isolation from Alcyonacea up to December 2018. One hundred twenty-one compounds with nitrogenous moiety are published from fifteen genera. Their prominent biological activity is evident in their antiproliferative effect, which makes them interesting as potential leads for antitumor agents. For instance, eleutherobin and sarcodictyins are in preclinical or clinical stages.

Marine Alkaloids with Anti-Inflammatory Activity: Current Knowledge and Future Perspectives

“…Marine alkaloids originating from marine organisms are described in the literature, presenting different biological and pharmacological activities. Several studies describe the presence of alkaloids in Alcyonacea coral species, with antiviral, antitumor, antibiotic, and immunomodulatory activities [44]. Similarly, many sponge alkaloids have been identified, and their potential antibiotic, antifungal, antitumor, antileukemic, and antidepressant activities have been described [45][46][47][48][49].…”

Coral Venom Toxins

“…Soft corals (Alcyonacea), formerly known as gorgonian corals, contrast stony corals in that they do no create a calcium carbonate skeleton (Alarif et al, 2019). In a similar study to the Scleractinia coral extract analyses, Radwan et.…”

Alcyonium Octocorals: Potential Source of Diverse Bioactive Terpenoids

“…Blunt and his co-workers reported that the identified marine metabolites estimated to be 31,000 (i.e., 1000 substances per year) [7]. The molecular structures associated, particularly, produced from marine organisms, are varying from low molecular weight to complex form [8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. These metabolites enhance marine invertebrate’s survival by providing chemical defense.…”

“…Alcyonacea (Phylum, Cnidaria; class, Anthozoa; subclass, Octocorallia; order, Alcyonacea) constitutes an important group of marine invertebrates, widely distributed in the coral reefs. They are quite numerous throughout the tropical waters, mainly live in the intertidal zones on inner reefs below the stony corals [14]. They are less prone to damage or ailments from collecting and shipping than the stony corals.…”

“…They are less prone to damage or ailments from collecting and shipping than the stony corals. They protect themselves by the production of certain chemical mediators, due to the absence of skeletal defenses [3,14].…”