Drug discovery and sea hares: bigger is better.
Traditionally, small molecules (<1kDa) have dominated the study of the chemistry and chemical ecology of marine natural products. However, as reported in a recent publication, Yang and co-workers have isolated a 60-kDa antibacterial protein from the defensive secretions of the sea hare Aplysia californica. This protein, escapin, has been characterized as an l-amino acid oxidase with bacteriostatic and bacteriocidal activities. Their work highlights the largely untapped biomedical potential of marine organism-derived proteins and addresses the problems of supply associated with invertebrate natural products. It also leads to intriguing hypotheses about the ecological function(s) of the new protein.
Barsby
Todd
T
Faculty of Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4, Canada. todd.barsby@uoit.ca
D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D001048:Aplysia / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000502:physiology; D001685:Biological Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D050830:L-Amino Acid Oxidase / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001685:Biological Factors; D050830:L-Amino Acid Oxidase