Considered a marine delicacy in Asia, sea cucumbers are widely known for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Now, new research from the University of South Australia (UniSA) suggests that they might be a crucial ingredient in the fight against diabetes.
Natural products play an invaluable role as a starting point in the drug discovery process, and plants and animals use many interesting biologically active natural products as chemical defence mechanisms against predators. Among marine organisms, many nudibranch gastropods are known to obtain toxins from what they are eating, such as sponges.
These toxins are used as chemical defences and bright colours to warn potential predators away,
In ancient China crabs were smashed open and thrust into wounds in battles because chitosan is antimicrobial, meaning it heals and kills bacteria.
Chitosan's properties allow it to rapidly clot blood and promote hemostasis (stops bleeding). Chitosan bonds with platelets and red blood cells to form a gel-like clot which seals a bleeding vessel.
Researchers at the University of Utah Health led by Eric Schmidt, along with collaborators, successfully identified the DNA responsible for synthesizing the compound, eleutherobin, marking a significant step towards producing it in the laboratory for further testing and potential use in cancer treatment.
Meanwhile, a second group of researchers led by Bradley Moore of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, showed in a separate study that corals make related molecules.
Bottlenose dolphins appear to repair skin and stay healthy by repeatedly rubbing up against corals that have natural medicinal properties, according to new research.
Corals and sponges used by the dolphins have been found to contain 17 bioactive compounds, with different properties, such as antibacterial, antioxidative or hormonal attributes.
A naturally produced melanoma-fighting compound called "Palmerolide A" has been found in a microbe that lives in Synoicum adareanum, a species of ascidian common to the waters of Antarctica's Anvers Island archipelago, where it grows in small colonies.
Ascidians, or "sea squirts," are primitive, sac-like marine animals that live attached to ocean bottoms around the world, and feed on plankton by filtering seawater.
Small, antibody-like proteins known as VNARs (Variable New Antigen Receptors) are derived from the immune systems of sharks, and appear to be extremely potent in preventing Covid-19, as well as its variants, and related coronaviruses from infecting human cells.
A purple sea urchin has 70 percent of its genes in common with humans, including genes associated with such diseases as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and muscular dystrophy.
There are roughly 100 human disease genes in the sea urchin genome.
Researchers said they believe similarities in the genes of sea urchins could one day help them better understand how the human immune system works.
According to an analysis of the Atlantic cod’s genome, scientists have discovered the fish have evolved to survive without a set of genes thought essential to the immune system. It is hoped the finding will lead to better vaccines for farmed cod and even open new avenues of medical research for human disease.
Researchers believe this quality could be harnessed to help slow the spread of diseases such as cancer.
Potentially, it could lead to a new generation of drug treatments.
The Australian team found that shark antibodies can withstand high temperatures as well as extremely acidic or alkaline conditions.
