Antitumor compounds from marine actinomycetes.
Chemotherapy is one of the main treatments used to combat cancer. A great number of antitumor compounds are natural products or their derivatives, mainly produced by microorganisms. In particular, actinomycetes are the producers of a large number of natural products with different biological activities, including antitumor properties. These antitumor compounds belong to several structural classes such as anthracyclines, enediynes, indolocarbazoles, isoprenoides, macrolides, non-ribosomal peptides and others, and they exert antitumor activity by inducing apoptosis through DNA cleavage mediated by topoisomerase I or II inhibition, mitochondria permeabilization, inhibition of key enzymes involved in signal transduction like proteases, or cellular metabolism and in some cases by inhibiting tumor-induced angiogenesis. Marine organisms have attracted special attention in the last years for their ability to produce interesting pharmacological lead compounds.
Olano
Carlos
C
Departamento de Biología Funcional e Instituto Universitario de Oncología del Principado de Asturias, Universidad de Oviedo, 33006 Oviedo, Spain. olanocarlos@uniovi.es
Méndez
Carmen
C
Salas
José A
JA
D039903:Actinobacteria / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D002227:Carbazoles / Q000737:chemistry; D006027:Glycosides / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008386:Marine Biology; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D013729:Terpenes / Q000737:chemistry
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D002227:Carbazoles; D006027:Glycosides; D010455:Peptides; D013729:Terpenes