Abstract
Marine fungi are known to produce structurally unique secondary metabolites, and more than 1000 marine fungal-derived metabolites have already been reported. Despite the absence of marine fungal-derived metabolites in the current clinical pipeline, dozens of them have been classified as potential chemotherapy candidates because of their anticancer activity. Over the last decade, several comprehensive reviews have covered the potential anticancer activity of marine fungal-derived metabolites. However, these reviews consider the term “cytotoxicity” to be synonymous with “anticancer agent”, which is not actually true. Indeed, a cytotoxic compound is by definition a poisonous compound. To become a potential anticancer agent, a cytotoxic compound must at least display (i) selectivity between normal and cancer cells (ii) activity against multidrug-resistant (MDR) cancer cells; and (iii) a preferentially non-apoptotic cell death mechanism, as it is now well known that a high proportion of cancer cells that resist chemotherapy are in fact apoptosis-resistant cancer cells against which pro-apoptotic drugs have more than limited efficacy. The present review thus focuses on the cytotoxic marine fungal-derived metabolites whose ability to kill cancer cells has been reported in the literature. Particular attention is paid to the compounds that kill cancer cells through non-apoptotic cell death mechanisms.
Highlights
Despite the efforts of academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies, the chemotherapeutic arsenal has remained limited, primarily due to the emergence of drug-resistant cancer types. Both terrestrial and marine natural sources have provided several lead compounds that have led to the development of the majority of the anticancer drugs currently used in therapeutics
Unlike marine macroorganisms, such as sponges and other sessile invertebrates, which have been extensively investigated, marine-derived fungi had been neglected until recently as a source of lead structures that could increase the clinical pipeline in chemotherapy research
Even so, growing numbers of marine-derived fungal secondary metabolites with interesting pharmacological activities that are considered valuable for the development of new chemotherapeutic agents have been reported over the last three decades
Summary
According to World Cancer Report 2014, which was published by the World Health Organization’s. The same report states that, among the commonest cancers, lung cancer was found to be the highest, making up 13% of the total number in 2012, followed by breast cancer (11.9%), colorectal cancer (9.7%), and prostate cancer (7.9%). Torre et al [2] argued that the occurrence of cancer is increasing because of the growth and aging of the population, as well as the increasing prevalence of established risk factors such as smoking, overweight, physical inactivity, and changing reproductive patterns associated with urbanization and economic development. The same authors have reported that the other leading causes of cancer deaths in more developed countries included colorectal cancer among males and females and prostate cancer among males, whereas liver and stomach cancer among males and cervical cancer among females were the leading causes of cancer deaths in less developed countries [2]
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