Chemical Constituents and Bioactivities of Starfishes: An Update

Abstract

Starfishes produce various structurally unique secondary metabolites with diverse biological activities. This review is an update summary of the new compounds and their bioactivities from starfish (the Asteroidea Class) with 71 references covering from January 2007 to December 2018. During this period, 216 new compounds were obtained from 36 species. The chemical constituents are mostly steroids, steroidal glycosides, and gangliosides. These components have been found to possess various bioactivities, including anticancer, anti-inflammation, etc.

Asterosaponins: Structures, Taxonomic Distribution, Biogenesis and Biological Activities

“…The aim of this short part of our review is an attempt to focus on more promising types of asterosaponin activities and on such directions of further investigation, which, in our opinion, could be prospective to find new useful properties and applications. Recently, several reviews [12,111,112] were published about the biological activities of polar steroids from starfish, including asterosaponins.…”

“…Cytostatic action was established against eggs and sperm of sea urchins (as a rule, embryos of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius were used as a model system). Asterosaponins, like holostane glycosides from sea cucumbers, exhibit the blocking of the embryo's development and inhibit fertilization by sperm of this sea urchin [12].…”

“…In many cases, asterosaponins not only suppress cell proliferation but also inhibit colony formation in tumor cells acting at non-toxic or low toxic concentrations [12]. For example, lethasterioside A (110) from Lethasterias fusca strongly suppresses colony formation of T-47D, RPMI-7951, and HCT-116 tumor cells in soft agar clonogenic assay at a concentration of 20 µM [64].…”

“…There are numerous reports concerning with capability of asterosaponins to induce the production of different pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory cytokines. Macrophages RAW 264.7 were frequently used in the search for asterosaponins with anti-inflammatory properties [12]. The studied asterosaponins either increased the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by these macrophages, stimulating their activity, or decreased the level of ROS after stimulation of the macrophages by lipopolysaccharide from E. coli, thus decreasing hyperstimulation.…”

“…Earlier, reviews [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] were published on marine polar steroids, including asterosaponins as one of their groups, but these articles did not contain complete information about the main features and properties of asterosaponins, accumulated to the present time, and often concerned only with specific time periods and only some aspects of their investigation.…”