Pharmaceuticals from marine sources: past, present and future

A large proportion of the current pharmacopoeia can trace its origin back to nature. Biodiversity in the Earth’s largest habitat, the ocean, is greater than that on land, suggesting a huge potential for new bioactive chemistry. Compounds isolated from marine organisms have novel structures and modulate human disease targets with novel mechanisms of action. Around 15–20 marine-derived compounds have been approved for clinical use against cancer, pain, viral infection and heart disease. Some of the most potent compounds are directed towards cancer cells via linkage to an antibody. The approved marine-derived pharmaceuticals have been produced via (semi)-synthesis, while expression of the biosynthetic gene clusters in a microbial host is a future alternative for the production of those compounds. Technical improvements in the extraction, isolation and structural characterisation of marine-derived compounds, as well as the reduction in effort wasted in isolation of known compounds, have sped up the discovery process, meaning that industry is taking a renewed interest in this field as a source of pharmaceuticals with novel mechanisms of action to treat human disease with unmet need.