Abstract
Prostaglandins (PGs) are lipid mediators belonging to the eicosanoid family. PGs were first discovered in mammals where they are key players in a great variety of physiological and pathological processes, for instance muscle and blood vessel tone regulation, inflammation, signaling, hemostasis, reproduction, and sleep-wake regulation. These molecules have successively been discovered in lower organisms, including marine invertebrates in which they play similar roles to those in mammals, being involved in the control of oogenesis and spermatogenesis, ion transport, and defense. Prostaglandins have also been found in some marine macroalgae of the genera Gracilaria and Laminaria and very recently the PGs pathway has been identified for the first time in some species of marine microalgae. In this review we report on the occurrence of prostaglandins in the marine environment and discuss the anti-inflammatory role of these molecules.
Highlights
Marine organisms have a great potential to produce a vast variety of bioactive molecules with high antibiotic, anti-proliferative, and anti-inflammatory activity [1]
Eicosanoids deriving from oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) through cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX) pathways play a pivotal role both in the onset and in the resolution of inflammation [9]
We present a short background on prostaglandin structure and function and give an updated overview of the presence of PGs in marine organisms, discussing the anti-inflammatory role of PGs from the marine environment
Summary
Marine organisms have a great potential to produce a vast variety of bioactive molecules with high antibiotic, anti-proliferative, and anti-inflammatory activity [1]. PGs are very well studied and described in mammals where they are active in a great variety of physiological and pathological processes such as smooth muscle and vaso-tone regulation, signaling, hemostasis sleep-wake regulation, reproduction, and especially inflammation In these organisms, they are synthetized and released in response to external stimuli [14] and rapidly inactivated by metabolizing enzymes after they have accomplished their function [15]. Prostaglandins derive from the sequential actions of highly specific enzymes (Figure 1) Their synthesis is initiated by phospholipases A2 (PLA2 ), a family of enzymes that hydrolyze membrane phospholipids at the sn-2 position, liberating free fatty acid precursors, mainly ARA [15]. The enzyme prostaglandin I synthase (PGIS), a member of the cytochrome P450 superfamily, converts PGH2 to PGI2 [33] This PG has anti-mitogenic activity and inhibits DNA synthesis through specific IP receptors.
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