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Marine Bioprospecting in Southern Africa

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Drug Discovery in Africa

Abstract

Natural products isolated from marine invertebrate fauna and their associated microbial communities are globally recognized as potentially rich sources of new pharmaceuticals, especially anti-cancer agents. With the exception of southern Africa, Africa’s marine biodiversity is generally poorly described especially from marine biota found in the more remote and largely inaccessible areas along Africa’s 30,500-km-long coastline. Over the last four decades, bioprospecting for new medicinal compounds from African marine organisms has generally been confined to the marine invertebrate communities residing off the more accessible southern African coast. A total of 18 South African marine natural products have been patented for their anti-cancer activity with the marine tube worm metabolite cephalostatin 1 and a synthetic analogue of the sponge metabolite hemiasterlin, showing the greatest promise for new drug development.

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Abbreviations

BMS:

Bristol-Myers Squibb

HIF-1:

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1

NCI:

National Cancer Institute

ORI:

Oceanographic Research Institute

Rhodes:

Rhodes University

SCC:

Squamous cell carcinoma

SCOC:

Squamous cell oesophageal cancer

SIO:

Scripps Institution of Oceanography

SKB:

SmithKline Beecham

STS:

Soft tissue sarcoma

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Rhodes University, 94, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Michael T. Davies-Coleman & Suthananda N. Sunassee

Authors
  1. Michael T. Davies-Coleman
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  2. Suthananda N. Sunassee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael T. Davies-Coleman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Dept. of Chemistry, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa

    Kelly Chibale

  2. , Department of Chemistry, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Mike Davies-Coleman

  3. and Technology, African Institute of Biomedical Science, Harare, 2294, Zimbabwe

    Collen Masimirembwa

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Davies-Coleman, M.T., Sunassee, S.N. (2012). Marine Bioprospecting in Southern Africa. In: Chibale, K., Davies-Coleman, M., Masimirembwa, C. (eds) Drug Discovery in Africa. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28175-4_8

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