Research and development of marine bio-active substances and drugs / 第二军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

The ocean is a huge resource of organisms and about 80% of the world species live in it.Marine organisms synthesize various structurally-unique and pharmacologically-active metabolites which differ from those derived from the land organisms and serve as lead compounds for drug development.More than 15 000 new compounds have been isolated and identified from marine animals,plants and microorganisms since decades ago,and drugs like cephalosporins,ziconotide(Prialt),cytarabine(AraC) and vidarabine(AraA) were developed using these compounds as precursors.