Evaluation of Marine Brown Algae and Sponges from Brazil as Anticoagulant and Antiplatelet Products

Abstract

The ischemic disorders, in which platelet aggregation and blood coagulation are involved, represent a major cause of disability and death worldwide. The antithrombotic therapy has unsatisfactory performance and may produce side effects. So, there is a need to seek molecules with antithrombotic properties. Marine organisms produce substances with different well defined ecological functions. Moreover, some of these molecules also exhibit pharmacological properties such as antiviral, anticancer, antiophidic and anticoagulant properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate, through in vitro tests, the effect of two extracts of brown algae and ten marine sponges from Brazil on platelet aggregation and blood coagulation. Our results revealed that most of the extracts were capable of inhibiting platelet aggregation and clotting measured by plasma recalcification tests, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, and fibrinogenolytic activity. On the other hand, five of ten species of sponges induced platelet aggregation. Thus, the marine organisms studied here may have molecules with antithrombotic properties, presenting biotechnological potential to antithrombotic therapy. Further chemical investigation should be conducted on the active species to discover useful molecules for the development of new drugs to treat clotting disorders.

Marine Diterpenes: Molecular Modeling of Thrombin Inhibitors with Potential Biotechnological Application as an Antithrombotic

“…Some studies described marine products from seaweeds as feasible anticoagulants to be explored such as those isolated from the brown alga, Canistrocarpus cervicornis (e.g., heterofucans) [9] and fruits of Ilex paraguariensis [10]. Diterpenes also represent a class of secondary metabolites with high biotechnological potential [11]. Recently, De Andrade Moura and coworkers reported the inhibitory effects against human platelet aggregation and blood coagulation of dichotomanol, a rare exclusively marine diterpene with two aldehyde groups and pachydictyol A and isopachydictyol A which are mainly prenylated derivatives of known guaiane sesquiterpenes, all isolated from the Brazilian marine brown alga Dictyota menstrualis [2] (Figure 2).…”

“…Lately, the biotechnological development in the field of marine products have explored potential applications on thrombotic related pathological diseases [2,11,20,21]. In 2014 De Andrade Moura and co-workers described three diterpenes from Dictyota menstrualis (pachydictyol A, isopachydictyol A and dichotomanol) as inhibitors with direct effect on Thrombin catalytic activity against its natural (fibrinogen) and synthetic (chromogenic-S2238) substrates [2].…”

Marine Natural Products from Seaweeds

“…Como nas algas verdes, há vários artigos de atividades biológicas de extratos de algas pardas. [56][57][58] Sem dúvida, os produtos naturais de algas pardas marinhas têm um grande potencial para diversas atividades biológicas, sendo o grupo de macroalga mais estudado no Brasil em relação à química de produtos naturais. …”

The red seaweed Plocamium brasiliense shows anti-snake venom toxic effects

“…The seas provide an amazing source of molecules when compared to the terrestrial environment; however, little is known about their biological or pharmacological functions. Marine organisms produce molecules derived from primary and secondary metabolism with biological and pharmacological effects, such as antiviral, anticancer, anticoagulant and antiplatelet activities [ 22 - 26 ]. Previously, antivenom activity has been described in marine algae and sponges, which showed that both organisms can inhibit some toxic effects of Lachesis muta and B. jararaca venoms [ 27 , 28 ].…”