Metabolites from Marine Sponges and Their Potential to Treat Malarial Protozoan Parasites Infection: A Systematic Review

• Published in: Marine drugs 2021-02, Vol.19 (3), p.134
• Main Authors: Aguiar, Anna Caroline Campos, Parisi, Julia Risso, Granito, Renata Neves, de Sousa, Lorena Ramos Freitas, Renno, Ana Cláudia Muniz, Gazarini, Marcos Leoni
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; antimalarial; Antimalarials - administration & dosage; Antimalarials - isolation & purification; Antimalarials - pharmacology; Aquatic insects; Artemisinin; Bioactive compounds; Biodiversity; Cell culture; Defence mechanisms; Drug Development; Drug Resistance, Multiple; Erythrocytes; Glycosphingolipids; Human diseases; Humans; Infectious diseases; Inhibitory Concentration 50; Literature reviews; Malaria; Malaria, Falciparum - drug therapy; Marine invertebrates; Marine organisms; Metabolism; Metabolites; Mosquitoes; Multidrug resistance; Mutation; Natural products; Parasites; Plasmodium; Plasmodium falciparum - drug effects; Polyketides; Porifera - metabolism; Protozoa; resistance; Review; Secondary Metabolism; Secondary metabolites; sponge; Sponges; Systematic review; Terpenes; Vector-borne diseases
• ISSN: 1660-3397; 1660-3397
• DOI: 10.3390/md19030134

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus through the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes, affecting 228 million people and causing 415 thousand deaths in 2018. Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the most recommended treatment for malaria; however, the emergence of multidrug resistance has unfortunately limited their effects and challenged the field. In this context, the ocean and its rich biodiversity have emerged as a very promising resource of bioactive compounds and secondary metabolites from different marine organisms. This systematic review of the literature focuses on the advances achieved in the search for new antimalarials from marine sponges, which are ancient organisms that developed defense mechanisms in a hostile environment. The principal inclusion criterion for analysis was articles with compounds with IC below 10 µM or 10 µg/mL against culture. The secondary metabolites identified include alkaloids, terpenoids, polyketides endoperoxides and glycosphingolipids. The structural features of active compounds selected in this review may be an interesting scaffold to inspire synthetic development of new antimalarials for selectively targeting parasite cell metabolism.