Abstract
Despite the huge investment into research and the significant effort and advances made in the search for new anticancer drugs in recent decades, cancer cure and treatment continue to be a formidable challenge. Many sources, including plants, animals, and minerals, have been explored in the oncological field because of the possibility of identifying novel molecular therapeutics. Marine sponges are a prolific source of secondary metabolites, a number of which showed intriguing tumor chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic properties. Recently, Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs derived from marine sponges have been shown to reduce metastatic breast cancer, malignant lymphoma, and Hodgkin’s disease. The chemopreventive and potential anticancer activity of marine sponge-derived compounds could be explained by multiple cellular and molecular mechanisms, including DNA protection, cell-cycle modulation, apoptosis, and anti-inflammatory activities as well as their ability to chemosensitize cancer cells to traditional antiblastic chemotherapy. The present article aims to depict the multiple mechanisms involved in the chemopreventive and therapeutic effects of marine sponges and critically explore the limitations and challenges associated with the development of marine sponge-based anticancer strategy.
Highlights
Natural compounds represent a useful source of active molecules and play a noteworthy role in the drug discovery process
The aim of this review is to illustrate and provide an update on the potential chemopreventive and antitumor effects of marine sponges, with particular focus on their ability to affect different pathways involved in cancer formation and development, and critically examine the limitations and challenges associated with the development of marine sponge-based anticancer strategy
The increasing knowledge of the ability of compounds isolated from marine sponges to target various events of the carcinogenetic process suggests that they could serve as new tools for both preventive and therapeutic interventions
Summary
Natural compounds represent a useful source of active molecules and play a noteworthy role in the drug discovery process. Natural compounds are often characterized by a better safety profile than traditional anticancer agents and the ability to inhibit cancer formation and development through the interaction with multiple cell signaling pathways [3] This property makes it possible to affect multiple hallmarks. Particular nucleosides, sterols, alkaloids, peroxides, terpenes, fatty acids, amino acid derivatives and cyclic peptides have been discovered as active compounds and at least 60 of them have chemopreventive and/or anticancer potential [8] These remarkable properties could be justified by the sponge’s ability to affect multiple cellular and molecular events, including DNA protection, cell cycle, apoptosis and inflammation as well as by their ability to chemosensitize cancer cells to traditional antiblastic chemotherapy. The aim of this review is to illustrate and provide an update on the potential chemopreventive and antitumor effects of marine sponges, with particular focus on their ability to affect different pathways involved in cancer formation and development, and critically examine the limitations and challenges associated with the development of marine sponge-based anticancer strategy
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