Structural Diversity, Biological Properties and Applications of Natural Products from Cyanobacteria. A Review

Abstract

Nowadays, various drugs on the market are becoming more and more resistant to numerous diseases, thus declining their efficacy for treatment purposes in human beings. Antibiotic resistance is one among the top listed threat around the world which eventually urged the discovery of new potent drugs followed by an increase in the number of deaths caused by cancer due to chemotherapy resistance as well. Accordingly, marine cyanobacteria, being the oldest prokaryotic microorganisms belonging to a monophyletic group, have proven themselves as being able to generate pharmaceutically important natural products. They have long been known to produce distinct and structurally complex secondary metabolites including peptides, polyketides, alkaloids, lipids, and terpenes with potent biological properties and applications. As such, this review will focus on recently published novel compounds isolated from marine cyanobacteria along with their potential bioactivities such as antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, anti-tuberculosis, immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory capacities. Moreover, various structural classes, as well as their technological uses will also be discussed.

Response of Fish Gut Microbiota to Toxin-Containing Cyanobacterial Extracts: A Microcosm Study on the Medaka (Oryzias latipes)

“…For instance, aerucyclamides, some of which were identified here ( Figure S1), are cyclic peptides that may present antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities. Cyanobacterial secondary metabolites may also include compounds interfering with bacterial quorum sensing, or exhibiting allelopathic or antibacterial properties 51 . These compounds may lead to dysbioses and their consequences, such as the increase in abundances of potential pathogens observed in Extract 1, or the increase in bacterial taxa that may use cyanobacterial metabolites as hypothesized in Extract 2.…”

New Benthic Cyanobacteria from Guadeloupe Mangroves as Producers of Antimicrobials

“…Cyanobacteria are among the important primary producers in various coastal ecosystems including mangroves. Besides their occurrence in the bacterioplankton, various cyanobacteria occur in biofilms on the sediment surface, on rocks, and on biological surfaces as part of the periphyton [1,2]. Biofilm-forming cyanobacteria contribute to locale trophic networks through carbon fixation, and depending on species also to nitrogen fixation, accumulation of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous [3].…”

“…The benthic species, especially in tropical zones, may form dense biofilms on various types of substrates and may have major ecological roles [2] but are still poorly known, compared to pelagic species. Although cyanobacteria are of particular interest as ecologically-relevant microorganisms, they are also regarded as producers of a broad diversity of bioactive secondary metabolites including cyanotoxins and various antimicrobial compounds which influence their interactions with other organisms [1,4,5]. Some of these compounds are of pharmacological interest, as illustrated by the use of Brentuxymab vedotin, based on dolastatin 10 from Symploca, in the treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma [1,6].…”

Natural Products from Cyanobacteria: Focus on Beneficial Activities

“…Two main aspects, the chemical diversity and the related bioactivity, have to be considered when considering the application potential of natural products (molecules, metabolites, or compounds) produced by cyanobacteria. The chemical diversity of metabolites produced by cyanobacteria has been largely described and about fifteen reviews have been already published in the past twenty years dealing with their structural and chemical diversity [9][10][11][12][13][14] or their corresponding biosynthetic pathways [15,16]. Beyond the notorious harmful effects of cyanotoxins, other cyanobacterial natural products show a wide range of bioactivities that could be potentially useful for diverse application fields [17][18][19][20][21].…”

“…The wide structural diversity has been described as a consequence of the numerous biosynthetic pathway developed by cyanobacteria in order to produce these metabolites [15]. Most of the active cyanobacterial molecules are considered as being produced either through the non-ribosomal peptide (NRP) or the hybrid polyketide-NRP biosynthetic pathways [10], or by the ribosomal synthesis of pro-peptides that are post-translationally modified (RiPP). Previous genome analysis demonstrated that the diversity of the known metabolites is just a fraction of the true metabolic potential of cyanobacteria [15].…”