Abstract
An alarming increase in cancer deaths around the globe has sparked a quest for new effective antitumor drugs developed through biological screening of both terrestrial and marine organisms. Recently, analyses of marine-derived alkaloids isolated from tunicates, a close relative to vertebrates, reveal various anti-cancer activities including anti-angiogenic action, anti-proliferative activity, inhibition of key cellular events like topoisomerase function and tubulin polymerization with respect to cytotoxicity and apoptosis . Vast numbers of potential anticancer molecules in the marine biosphere cannot be underestimated. Tunicate compounds have already entered the market and shown significant success. Moreover, improved technology has enabled synthesis of these molecules by a diverse cadre of professionals including career biologists, immunobiologists, invertebrate immunologists, and marine biologists who use an amazing array of procedures. Although there are no guarantees of consistently reliable success, identifying and comprehending the basic nature of these compounds is a promising first step towards unique pharmaceutical designs that promise to provide a therapeutic solution.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
University of California Museum of Paleontology (2006) Introduction to the Urochordata. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/chordata/urochordata.html. Accessed 29 Sept 2013
Cooper EL (2012) Adaptive immunity from prokaryotes to eukaryotes: broader inclusions due to less exclusivity? In: Kanwar JR (ed) Recent advances in immunology to target cancer, inflammation and infections. Tech, Croatia, pp 495–520
Parrinello N (1996) Cytotoxic activity of tunicate hemocytes. Prog Mol Subcell Biol 15:190–217
Cooper EL, Yao D (2012) Diving for drugs: tunicate anticancer compounds. Drug Discov Today 17(11–12):636–648
Robert J (2010) Comparative study of tumorigenesis and tumor immunity in invertebrates and nonmammalian vertebrates. Dev Comp Immunol 34(9):915–925
Kvell K, Cooper EL, Engelmann P et al (2007) Blurring borders: innate immunity with adaptive features. Clin Dev Immunol. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jir/2007/083671/abs/
Cooper EL, Mansour MH, Negm HI (1996) Marine invertebrate immunodefense responses: molecular and cellular approaches in tunicates. Annu Rev Fish Dis 6:133–149
Cooper EL, Parrinello N (2001) Immunodefense in tunicates: cells and molecules. In: The biology of ascidians. Springer, Tokyo, pp 383–391
Morandi A, Tosto C, Sartori G, Roberti di Sarsina P (2011) Advent of a link between ayurveda and modern health science: the proceedings of the first international congress on ayurveda, Ayurveda: the meaning of life-awareness, environment, and health March 21–22, 2009, Milan, Italy. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2011:929–083
Liu ML, Chien LY, Tai CJ, Lin KC (2011) Effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine for liver protection and chemotherapy completion among cancer patients. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2011:291–843
Watanabe K, Matsuura K, Gao P, Hottenbacher L, Tokunaga H, Nishimura K, Imazu Y, Reissenweber H, Witt CM (2011) Traditional Japanese kampo medicine: clinical research between modernity and traditional medicine-the state of research and methodological suggestions for the future. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2011:513–842
Cooper EL, Balamurugan M (2010) Unearthing a source of medicinal molecules. Drug Discov Today 15(21):966–972
Cooper EL (2005) CAM, eCAM, bioprospecting: the twenty first century pyramid. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2(2):125
Rinehart KL (2000) Antitumor compounds from tunicates. Med Res Rev 20(1):1–27
Sima P, Vetvicka V (2011) Bioactive substances with anti-neoplastic efficacy from marine invertebrates: bryozoa, Mollusca, Echinodermata and Urochordata. World J Clin Oncol 2(11):362
Tohme R, Darwiche N, Gali-Muhtasib H (2011) A journey under the sea: the quest for marine anti-cancer alkaloids. Molecules 16(12):9665–9696
Mayer A (2013) Marine pharmaceuticals: the preclinical pipeline. http://marinepharmacology.midwestern.edu/preclinPipeline.htm. Accessed 15 Oct 2013
Tulp M, Bohlin L (2002) Functional versus chemical diversity: is biodiversity important for drug discovery? Trends Pharmacol Sci 23(5):225–231
Haefner B (2003) Drugs from the deep: marine natural products as drug candidates. Drug Discov Today 8(12):536–544
NOAA Central Library (2013) Sea squirt. http://www.lib.noaa.gov/retiredsites/korea/main_species/sea_squirt.htm. Accessed 29 Oct 2013
Kim SM (2011) Antioxidant and anticancer activities of enzymatic hydrolysates of solitary tunicate (Styela clava). Food Sci Biotechnol 20(4):1075–1085
Ryan JT, Ross RP, Bolton D et al (2011) Bioactive peptides from muscle sources: meat and fish. Nutrients 3(9):765–791
Suarez-Jimenez GM, Burgos-Hernandez A, Ezquerra-Brauer JM (2012) Bioactive peptides and depsipeptides with anticancer potential: sources from marine animals. Mar Drugs 10(5):963–986
Cooper EL (2010) eCAM: retaining an international perspective. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 7(4):397
Goldrosen MH, Straus SE (2004) Complementary and alternative medicine: assessing the evidence for immunological benefits. Nat Rev Immunol 4:912–921
Jimenez PC, Wilke DV, Takeara R et al (2008) Cytotoxic activity of a dichloromethane extract and fractions obtained from Eudistoma vannamei (Tunicata: Ascidiacea). Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol 151(3):391–398
Takeara R, Jimenez PC, Wilke DV et al (2008) Antileukemic effects of Didemnum psammatodes (Tunicata: Ascidiacea) constituents. Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol 151(3):363–369
Sung PJ, Lin MR, Chen JJ et al (2007) Hydroperoxysterols from the tunicate Eudistoma sp. Chem Pharm Bull 55(4):666–668
Fedorov SN, Radchenko OS, Shubina LK et al (2006) Evaluation of cancer-preventive activity and structure–activity relationships of 3-demethylubiquinone Q2, isolated from the ascidian Aplidium glabrum, and its synthetic analogs. Pharm Res 23(1):70–81
Rashid MA, Gustafson KR, Boyd MR (2001) New cytotoxic N-methylated beta-carboline alkaloids from the marine ascidian Eudistoma gilboverde. J Nat Prod 64(11):1454–1456
Oda T, Kamoshita K, Maruyama S et al (2007) Cytotoxicity of lissoclibadins and lissoclinotoxins, isolated from a tropical ascidian Lissoclinum cf. badium, against human solid-tumor-derived cell lines. Biol Pharm Bull 30(2):385–387
Manzanares I, Cuevas C, Garcia-Nieto R et al (2001) Advances in the chemistry and pharmacology of ecteinascidins, a promising new class of anticancer agents. Curr Med Chem Anticancer Agent 1(3):257–276
Urdiales J, Morata P, De Castro IN, Sánchez-Jiménez F (1996) Antiproliferative effect of dehydrodidemnin B (DDB), a depsipeptide isolated from Mediterranean tunicates. Cancer lett 102(1):31–37
Appleton DR, Page MJ, Lambert G et al (2002) Kottamides AD: novel bioactive imidazolone-containing alkaloids from the New Zealand ascidian Pycnoclavella kottae. J Org Chem 67(15):5402–5404
Xu CX, Jin H, Chung YS et al (2008) Chondroitin sulfate extracted from ascidian tunic inhibits phorbol ester-induced expression of inflammatory factors VCAM-1 and COX-2 by blocking NF-κB activation in mouse skin. J Agric Food Chem 56(20):9667–9675
Depenbrock H, Peter R, Faircloth GT, Manzanares I, Jimeno J, Hanauske AR (1998) In vitro activity of aplidine, a new marine-derived anti-cancer compound, on freshly explanted clonogenic human tumour cells and haematopoietic precursor cells. Br J Cancer 78(6):739
Reichardt P (2013) Current questions in soft tissue sarcoma: further steps with Yondelis®. Expert Rev Anticancer Ther 13:25–30
Le Tourneau C, Raymond E, Faivre S (2007) Aplidine: a paradigm of how to handle the activity and toxicity of a novel marine anticancer poison. Curr Pharm Des 13(33):3427–3439
Monk BJ, Herzog TJ, Kaye S et al (2010) Trabectedin plus pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in recurrent ovarian cancer. J Clin Oncol 28(19):3107–3114
Twelves C, Hoekman K, Bowman A et al (2003) Phase I and pharmacokinetic study of Yondelis™(ecteinascidin-743; ET-743) administered as an infusion over 1 h or 3 h every 21 days in patients with solid tumours. Eur J Cancer 39(13):1842–1851
D’Incalci M, Jimeno J (2003) Preclinical and clinical results with the natural marine product ET-743. Expert Opin Investig Drugs 12:1843–1853
Schöffski P, Dumez H, Wolter P et al (2008) Clinical impact of trabectedin (ecteinascidin-743) in advanced/metastatic soft tissue sarcoma. Expert Opin Pharmacother 9:1609–1618
Poveda A (2011) Introduction. Int J of Gynecol Cancer 21(10):S1–S2
Xu Y, Kersten RD, Nam SJ et al (2012) Bacterial biosynthesis and maturation of the didemnin anti-cancer agents. J Am Chem Soc 134(20):8625–8632
Baker DD, Alvi KA (2004) Small-molecule natural products: new structures, new activities. Curr Opin Biotechnol 15:576–583
Tsukimoto M, Nagaoka M, Shishido Y et al (2011) Bacterial production of the tunicate-derived antitumor cyclic depsipeptide didemnin B. J Nat Prod 74(11):2329–2331
Carter NJ, Keam SJ (2010) Trabectedin: a review of its use in soft tissue sarcoma and ovarian cancer. Drugs 70:355–376
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cooper, E., Albert, R. (2015). Tunicates: A Vertebrate Ancestral Source of Antitumor Compounds. In: Kim, SK. (eds) Handbook of Anticancer Drugs from Marine Origin. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07145-9_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07145-9_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-07144-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-07145-9
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)