Chemistry Biology Review Cell Lessons from the Past and Charting the Future of Marine Natural Products Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology pSchoo of Pnarmacy and Phamaceutical Sclence,Universlty of Caltomia San Diego du(W.H.G.),bsmocre@ucsd.edu(B.S.M. D0110.1018 chemhiol20111201d Marine life forms are an important source of structurally diverse and biologically active secondary metabo ch nave inspir lopment of new classes of therape agents. These succes sourcing of the agent and iss related to xity.Neve al marine-derived agents are now approved,most as"first-in-class"drugs,with five of seven appearing in the past few years Additionally,there is a rich pipeline of clinical and preclinical marine compounds to suggest their continued app ted in tanding e agents are biosyr and re-engineering of some of these gene clusters are yielding novel agents of enhanced properties compared with the natural product. the ma ine world languished behind that of the terrestnal worlc rich in sp rsity especially in tro the intertidal.Thus.the large and showy creatures of the sea. 40 years ha a rema lora ch as red algae,sponges t cor we arly on sh this ted tero as an s Laure 005 in,and the plec oxins (Grind berg et al. 2008 ignis (Taylor,2008).and prostag nthis regard.F tion,th a distinctive and pervasive feature of these is the cryptic in space and time,we ere studied,and the ato nds (M al.2009: cts had he 2010:Sash ra et al.,2009).However,as th 9 oline e of natural products chemistry, and several thousand eads gen ine natural p more oft 10.M6 compoundsor their clse rlatives were by which th s.attention tur to smaller and smalle creatures that and oche asis mic has of ne in al bi ome of the sarea provide some of the ht to cu re marine bacteria ing the History of Marine Nat ducts Drug in the The early days of marine natural products discovery efforts 2009 ctive as this has been,it has ration of Chemistry Biology 19.January 27.2012 02012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved 85
Chemistry & Biology Review Lessons from the Past and Charting the Future of Marine Natural Products Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology William H. Gerwick1, * and Bradley S. Moore1, * 1Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA *Correspondence: wgerwick@ucsd.edu (W.H.G.), bsmoore@ucsd.edu (B.S.M.) DOI 10.1016/j.chembiol.2011.12.014 Marine life forms are an important source of structurally diverse and biologically active secondary metabolites, several of which have inspired the development of new classes of therapeutic agents. These success stories have had to overcome difficulties inherent to natural products-derived drugs, such as adequate sourcing of the agent and issues related to structural complexity. Nevertheless, several marine-derived agents are now approved, most as ‘‘first-in-class’’ drugs, with five of seven appearing in the past few years. Additionally, there is a rich pipeline of clinical and preclinical marine compounds to suggest their continued application in human medicine. Understanding of how these agents are biosynthetically assembled has accelerated in recent years, especially through interdisciplinary approaches, and innovative manipulations and re-engineering of some of these gene clusters are yielding novel agents of enhanced pharmaceutical properties compared with the natural product. Introduction Familiar to all, the coastal margin of the world’s oceans are extraordinarily rich in species diversity, especially in tropical environments. The last 40 years has seen a remarkable exploration of these unique organisms for their structurally diverse natural products. Early on, this was motivated by a need to detect and understand the chemical basis of various toxins with which people came into contact, such as saxitoxin, tetrodotoxin, and the brevetoxins (Grindberg et al., 2008), and subsequently from a fundamental interest to describe the unique adaptations that marine life possess in this regard. For example, a distinctive and pervasive feature of these is the incorporation of halogen atoms, bromide or chloride, covalently attached to organic compounds (Molinski et al., 2009; Villa and Gerwick, 2010; Sashidhara et al., 2009). However, as the field has progressed, efforts have focused more on biomedical screening programs, and now several drugs have been developed from leads generated from marine natural products (Newman and Cragg, 2010). More recently, the enzymatic and genetic basis by which these unique secondary metabolites arise has become a focal point with an ultimate vision of capturing and harnessing these unique biochemical catalysts so as to create molecular diversity of biomedical and agrochemical utility (Gulder and Moore, 2009). In this perspective review, we trace these developments in the field of marine natural products drug discovery and chemical biology, describe some of the success stories of these efforts, and then provide some vision of the future for this area of investigation. Tracing the History of Marine Natural Products Drug Discovery The early days of marine natural products discovery efforts focused on those organisms most conspicuous and easily collected. Indeed, before the advent of SCUBA, exploration of the marine world languished behind that of the terrestrial world for exactly this cause; an inability to access marine life beyond the intertidal. Thus, the large and showy creatures of the sea, such as red algae, sponges, and soft corals, were early on shown to produce a multitude of quite unique molecular species, such as highly halogenated terpenes and acetogenins from Rhodophytes such as Laurencia (Suzuki and Vairappan, 2005), the highly toxic polyketide ‘‘tedanolide’’ from the fire sponge Tedania ignis (Taylor, 2008), and prostaglandins from the gorgonian coral Plexaura homomalla (Weinheimer, 1974). With continued exploration, other groups of organisms, some more cryptic in space and time, were studied, and the repertoire of unique molecular species grew. By the turn of the century, marine natural products had become an established subdiscipline of natural products chemistry, and several thousand compounds had been described. Some groups of marine organisms were fairly well characterized for their major metabolites, and more often known compounds or their close relatives were being re-encountered (Faulkner, 2002). Thus, attention turned to smaller and smaller creatures that had previously escaped collection and examination, such as marine cyanobacteria, marine fungi, and diverse other groups of marine eubacteria. This emphasis on microorganisms has been rewarded with a wealth of new natural products chemistry, as well as the realization that many compounds previously isolated from macroorganisms, such as sponges and tunicates, are actually metabolic products of associated microbes (Piel, 2009). As a result, a number of groups around the world have sought to culture marine bacteria from various sources, including shallow and deep water sediments, animate as well as inanimate surfaces, and from within the tissues of other macroorganisms (Williams, 2009). Productive as this has been, it has still only begun to sample the phylogenetic richness present within microbial groups in the sea. From seawater alone, it is estimated that Chemistry & Biology 19, January 27, 2012 ª2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved 85
Cel Chemistry&Biology Review only1%of bacteria present have been cultured,and from culture Oftentimes,samples are obtained in this small scale beca use without any mycetes and erge at an even diversity of natural product structures these mi methods to r unds and ana argely unre in the world's oce at the nano he ea is ongoi ng (Fenical and Jensen.2006:Schaberle et a ctural and stereoche ccuracy by inde 2010) d with the of m bial life f d s largely by fermentation methods,have improvements i natural products to protein target extraction proto described further below aL.2010 of Marine ch et al.2008).In partic the prefra cti of ext ar re as forever changed the ce of 2 as trans ught on natural pr d over the past ate and t en tes the long-ten que s in the d and pr ch is co only emploved wherein ex cts o chemistr moder molecula compo n the ability to adc ther hand,pron of the material byH-NMR the bic ar that impacte d by modem omic approaches ce and Anthony 2011) doub stn stly and arine mi and the ical distinct from Ma 2009 the of the 21st century,the mo hed with qualit antibiotic enterocin(Piel amide 1 This tare M 2010 uch that h info onDhep ucts th (e.a..SciFinde rinLit e sets from la DNA s "or repre g chemical entr more effi ed from nafor hi vith little scale that there is not suff nt compound explor orga interes produced to ely exp only 86 Chemistry&Biology 19.January 27,2012012 Esevier Ltd All rights reser
only 1% of bacteria present have been cultured, and from culture independent methodologies, many major lineages remain without any or only a few cultured members. From another perspective, while Actinomycetes and Myxobacteria are the richest terrestrial groups of bacteria in terms of number and diversity of natural product structures, these microbes were largely unrecognized in the world’s oceans until recently, and exploration of the extent and diversity of these two groups in the sea is ongoing (Fenical and Jensen, 2006; Scha¨ berle et al., 2010). Combined with the exploration of marine microbial life forms, largely by fermentation methods, have been improvements in various approaches and strategies for interfacing natural products with modern biology and screening platforms. Automated extraction protocols coupled to prefractionation strategies have enhanced the quality and number of materials being evaluated in biological assays (Johnson et al., 2010; Bugni et al., 2008). In particular, the prefractionation of extracts to single compounds or reduced complexity mixtures enhances hit rates, due to the concentration of low abundance actives, and accelerates the identification process as the active compound is already pure or nearly so. However, there are two long-standing schools of thought on natural products discovery: ‘‘isolate and then test’’ versus ‘‘test and then isolate,’’ and both have a historical track record of success. Thus, a fusion approach is commonly employed wherein extracts or fractions are tested for bioactive compounds, and if a ‘‘strong’’ activity is detected, then bioassay-guided approaches are used. On the other hand, profiling of the material by 1 H-NMR and/or LCESIMS for unique chemical constituents can be followed by their isolation and broad evaluation in diverse biological assays. The strategies in biological assays have similarly shifted, from at one time in vivo screens to in vitro cell assays to isolated protein biochemical screens, and most recently, to high content phenotypic assays (Swinney and Anthony, 2011). The great gains achieved in throughput have resulted in large part from advances in automation; however, some of these approaches have emerged to be overly costly and lacking in flexibility; it is predicted that future development in HTS will focus more on quality of assays and their physiological relevance, rather than further miniaturization (Mayr and Bojanic, 2009). Thus, the newest approaches accentuate flexibility and cost effectiveness matched with quality test compounds being evaluated in new and intriguing areas of disease biology. Final analytical HPLC scale purifications on small samples can occur very rapidly to yield sufficient compound for structure elucidation by very sensitive mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) instrumentation (dubbed ‘‘nanoscale structure elucidation’’) (Molinski, 2010), such that leads are generated from materials available on only the microgram scale. These data, coupled with informative databases of natural products that contain analytical information (e.g., SciFinder, AntiMarine, MarinLit, ChemSpider) allows for the rapid identification of compounds as being previously known, the so-called process of ‘‘dereplication,’’ or representing new chemical entities. However, an obvious consequence and issue that has emerged from finding and determining active molecules on an ever smaller scale is that there is not sufficient compound produced to adequately explore their biological properties. Oftentimes, samples are obtained in this small scale because the producing organisms are present in small natural abundance and are difficult or impossible to recollect. Thus, supply problems emerge at an even earlier stage in the drug discovery process, and underscore the critical importance of synthetic and biosynthetic methods to resupply compounds and analogs. Moreover, structures determined at the nanoscale, just as for compounds elucidated when more plentiful, should be confirmed for structural and stereochemical accuracy by independent methodologies, such as total chemical synthesis (Nicolaou and Snyder, 2005). Finally, while chemoinformatics and in silico screening of natural products to protein targets has occurred to some extent, this is a relatively little developed aspect of the field and thus represents an exciting frontier, as described further below. Origins and Development of Marine Chemical Biology The molecular revolution has forever changed the face of marine natural products chemistry (Lane and Moore, 2011). With the explosion of numerous ‘‘omic’’ approaches—genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics—now employed by marine natural product practitioners, new areas of science and inquiry have emerged over the past decade that begin to answer long-term questions in the field and provide fresh ideas for new research directions. The bridging of natural products chemistry with modern molecular biology has empowered researchers with the ability to address fundamental questions about the biosynthetic capacity of marine organisms, the synthetic role of microbes in marine invertebrate natural product chemistry, and the bioengineering potential of marine drugs. In this section, we highlight recent trends in marine natural product research that have been impacted by modern omic approaches with a focus on small molecule biosynthesis. Without a doubt, marine organisms synthesize a plethora of small molecules with fascinating chemical structures and potent biological properties. Early biosynthetic knowledge developed primarily from isotope tracer experiments involving a wide range of marine microbes, algae, and invertebrates (Moore, 2005, 2006). These studies often revealed biosynthetic strategies in marine organisms distinct from their terrestrial counterparts. At the turn of the 21st century, the molecular basis of marine microbial natural product biosynthesis was first established for the streptomycete antibiotic enterocin (Piel et al., 2000) and the cyanobacterial agent barbamide (Chang et al., 2002) based on the targeted cloning and sequencing of their respective biosynthetic gene clusters (Figure 1). This targeted gene sequencing approach to the identification of secondary metabolic pathways relied upon the ability to generate specific gene probes that in some instances were time consuming to develop and at other times misleading to implement. Nonetheless, over the past 10 years numerous discoveries were established of natural product biosynthetic gene sets from laboratory-cultured marine isolates to field-collected samples (Lane and Moore, 2011). With the emergence of faster and cheaper DNA sequencing protocols, it is now much more efficient to sequence entire genomes rather than specific gene sets, especially when searching for biosynthetic pathways with little biochemical precedence or exploring organisms with multiple pathways of interest. Not only does genome sequencing provide key molecular 86 Chemistry & Biology 19, January 27, 2012 ª2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved Chemistry & Biology Review
Chemistry Biology Review Cell A 000 Natural F about precursor supply n 2002)and curacin A(Chang et a).was found tro ately10% M.producta metabolites of approximately 200 different r the past y ide (Eustaquio ultimately be strain specific. ya- nome se ramide analog (Eus 11)and MT9313, zing.or"genome tation concep ally moddmtide en ample highl the 2006)and the p n dis the rate of scientific discovery. step in understanding the specialized chemical biology of these Chemistry &Biology 9,January 27,20122012 Esevier Ltd All rights reserved 87
information about how, when and sometimes why a natural product is assembled, it also bestows additional information about precursor supply networks, competing or complementary metabolic pathways, and basic genetic traits of the producing organism, inter alia. The first completed marine actinomycete genome sequence was for the 5,183,331 bp Salinispora tropica in 2007 and revealed the molecular basis of at least 17 natural product biosynthetic pathways spanning approximately 10% of the genome (Udwary et al., 2007). Over the past few years, knowledge of the benthic S. tropica genome facilitated the molecular cloning of the salinosporamide (Eusta´ quio et al., 2009), sporolide (McGlinchey et al., 2008), and lymphostin (Miyanaga et al., 2011) pathways, the discovery of the novel macrolactam salinilactam A (Udwary et al., 2007), a new salinosporamide analog (Eusta´ quio et al., 2011) and numerous biosynthetic enzymes, and the linking of natural products to functional adaptation concepts in the Salinispora genus (Penn et al., 2009). This example highlights the far-reaching translational opportunities of having access to a completed genome in being able to speed up the rate of scientific discovery. More recently, the draft genome of the benthic filamentous cyanobacterium Moorea producta 3L (formally Lyngbya majuscula; Engene et al., 2011), a well-known producer of complex natural products such as barbamide (Chang et al., 2002) and curacin A (Chang et al., 2004), was found to harbor several surprises, including a relatively limited number of natural product pathways (Jones et al., 2011). Its 8.5 Mbp draft genome supports approximately 293 kbp of DNA sequence in secondary metabolism, far too low to encode the full suite of reported M. producta metabolites of approximately 200 different compounds. This maiden genome sequencing project suggests that the rich complement of natural products in M. producta will ultimately be strain specific. Genome sequencing of organisms not normally associated for their biosynthetic prowess, such as the pelagic cyanobacteria Trichodesmium erythraeum ISM101 and Prochlorococcus MIT9313, has enabled through sequence gazing, or ‘‘genome mining,’’ the hypothesis-driven discovery of the postranslationally modified ribosomal peptides trichamide (Sudek et al., 2006) and the prochlorosins (Li et al., 2010), respectively. This genomics-driven discovery of new chemical entities is a key, first step in understanding the specialized chemical biology of these important planktonic organisms. The prochlorosins represent a fascinating finding from a biosynthetic perspective in which N S N O CCl3 OCH3 H barbamide NH O O O Cl OH salinosporamide A O O H3CO O OH O O OH OH HO H enterocin N S O N NH O S N O N HN O H N N H O O patellamide A onnamide A NH O H2N NH NH COOH O O O OCH3 H N OH O CH3O O HO O O O HO O H3COOC OAc OH COOCH3 O O OH O OH bryostatin 1 N N O NH2 H O N OCH3 lymphostin H3CO H N O N O N O N O O O N S OH apratoxin A A B H H H H Figure 1. Examples of Marine Natural Products with Characterized Biosynthetic Pathways (A) Laboratory cultured and (B) environmental uncultured marine microbes whose biosynthetic pathways have been established by a variety of omic approaches (includes ecteinascidin-743 shown in Figure 4). Chemistry & Biology 19, January 27, 2012 ª2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved 87 Chemistry & Biology Review
Chemistry Biology Review EL88400 ase Area Derivative Sponge Bacteriun Nucleoside Cancer Derivative Sponge Bacterium Nucleoside Viral DNA Antiviral Ziconotide Cone Snai <no N-typeCa Pain oved channe at PowRoae Cancer FDA Derivative Fish Hyperriglyceridemia Tunicate Bacterium Cancer Cyanobacterium Cancer Linear NRPS/PKS Phase lll Tunicate Bacterium Cancer Worm aptds Rac1 and JNK Phase ll Phase ll Derivative Fungus Fungus bules Cancer and JNK stres Phase ll Elisidepsin Derivative Mollusk Bacterium Plasma Cancer ptde Derivative Nudibranch Bacterium Cancer Derivative Mollusk Cyanobacterium Cancer NRPS/PKS microtubules Phase I Bacterium Bacterium NRPS with 20S proteasome A:NPI-0052) hase l Derivative Tunicate Bacterium NRPS Akaloid Cancer Excision Repai Phasel SGN-75 Derivative Mollusk Cyanobacterium CD70 and Cancer Phase I ASG-5ME Derivative Mollusk ot ASG-5 and Cancer microtubule inear NRPS hase I Derivative Sponge Microtubules Cancer (NRPS-PKS Chemistry,01 Eevier Ltd All rights rese
Table 1. Six Marine Natural Products and Fourteen Marine Natural Products Inspired Compounds that Are FDA-Approved Agents or in Clinical Trial with Details of Their Collected Source, Predicted Biosynthetic Source, Molecular Target, and Disease Treated Clinical Status Compound Name Natural Product or Derivative Collected Source Organism Predicted Biosynthetic Source Biosynthetic Class of Agent Molecular Target Disease Area FDA approved Cytarabine (Ara-C) Derivative Sponge Bacterium Nucleoside DNA polymerase Cancer FDA approved Vidarabine (Ara-A) Derivative Sponge Bacterium Nucleoside Viral DNA polymerase I Antiviral FDA approved Ziconotide Natural Product Cone Snail Mollusk Cysteine Knot Peptide N-type Ca channel Pain FDA approved Eribulin Mesylate (E7389) Derivative Sponge Bacterium Complex Polyketide Microtubules Cancer FDA approved Omega-3-acid ethyl esters Derivative Fish Microalgae Omega-3 fatty acids Triglyceridesynthesizing enzymes Hypertriglyceridemia FDA approved Trabectedin (ET-743) (EU registered only) Natural Product Tunicate Bacterium NRPS-derived Alkaloid Minor groove of DNA Cancer FDA approved Brentuximab vedotin (SGN-35) Derivative Mollusk Cyanobacterium Antibody drug conjugate (MM auristatin E) – Linear NRPS/PKS CD30 and microtubules Cancer Phase III Plitidepsin (Aplidine) Natural Product Tunicate Bacterium Cyclic Depsipeptide Rac1 and JNK activation Cancer Phase II DMXBA (GTS-21) Derivative Worm Worm? Alkaloid a7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor Cognition, Schizophrenia Phase II Plinabulin (NPI 2358) Derivative Fungus Fungus Diketopiperazine Microtubules and JNK stress protein Cancer Phase II Elisidepsin Derivative Mollusk Bacterium Cyclic Depsipeptide Plasma membrane fluidity Cancer Phase II Zalypsis (PM00104) Derivative Nudibranch Bacterium Alkaloid DNA binding Cancer Phase II Glembatumumab vedotin (CDX-011) Derivative Mollusk Cyanobacterium Antibody drug conjugate (MM auristatin E) – Linear NRPS/PKS Glycoprotein NMB & microtubules Cancer Phase I Marizomib (Salinosporamide A; NPI-0052) Natural Product Bacterium Bacterium NRPS with b-lactone & g-lactam 20S proteasome Cancer Phase I Trabectedin analog (PM01183) Derivative Tunicate Bacterium NRPS Alkaloid Minor groove of DNA, Nucleotide Excision Repair Cancer Phase I SGN-75 Derivative Mollusk Cyanobacterium Antibody drug conjugate (MM auristatin F) – Linear NRPS/PKS CD70 and microtubules Cancer Phase I ASG-5ME Derivative Mollusk Cyanobacterium Antibody drug conjugate (MM auristatin E) - linear NRPS/PKS ASG-5 and microtubules Cancer Phase I Hemiasterlin derivative (E7974) Derivative Sponge Bacterium Modified linear tripeptide (NRPS-PKS) Microtubules Cancer 88 Chemistry & Biology 19, January 27, 2012 ª2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved Chemistry & Biology Review
Chemistry Biology Review Cell Table 1.Continued Source Disease Area Phase I Bryostatin 1 Bryozoan Bacterium Polyketide Protein kinase C Cancer,Alzheimer's Soft Coral Bacterium? Wound healing Cag208sancdncarmlaomshatwencemescrneg Product d by marine natural pro cts can be found in Maye and point toward the future approaches in ally synt eptide precursor oel8soemoancge2bpmhtohenimsmarnenatra ugh the e of p mit9313 is a r 10 2005 has the overy success orie ant biotic-produ ose antvalomenancntolanoneioperglerdni and oans ng beer known to harbor na ated,and five others are synthetic agents that cap ture the ed by errestrial micro gents are in phase .trials Table 1).Fioure ecades umma arizes the collected sources of organisms that have duct che yet went ered due to diff ates are the collected source of the olatior ubstances.However,as noted above,the coll source bish the s(H d etal. 1999 yet un igure 2B displays the actual or s specte aches the central im of bacteria in teria are t atural pr of th d's o An hat the ad mi a hia ation en numbering in the millions a a nucleo de:the n -deoxyrib e ring of de s of inte rer,due toth explora ral product ic gene clusters tha ion of t cts of sucl d that cyto red over phe s In this arabi rign and vative of nad a tiviral effects (Sagar et al.,2010 2009 ds a sub the dified rib (Schmidt et a as in inducing s of a te myelo re sign om e pre d the ir hete this is in co egy that ganed favor in antiviral nothe allow ing not only fo unctior for tunic nata.Ho ver.it w ina the ae din 743 (ET-743.=trabecte Chemistry Biology 19.January 27.2012 02012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved 89
a diverse collection of polycyclic, conformationally constrained lantipeptides are efficiently synthesized from up to 29 different ribosomally synthesized peptide precursors by the action of a single promiscuous processing enzyme (Li et al., 2010). In this way, although the genome size of P. MIT9313 is a modest 2,410,873 bp (Rocap et al., 2003), it still has the capacity to synthesize a collection of specialized chemicals more often associated with antibiotic-producing streptomycetes whose genomes are several times larger (Nett et al., 2009a). Marine macroorganisms, such as sponges, tunicates and bryozoans, have long been known to harbor natural products of biomedical significance that structurally resemble compounds produced by terrestrial microorganisms (Piel, 2004). This structural resemblance for decades begged the question of the biosynthetic source of invertebrate natural product chemistry, yet went unanswered due to difficulties in the isolation and culturing of community-based, natural product-producing microbes. Early experimental work involving cell sorting and in situ hybridization studies helped establish the symbiosis hypothesis (Haygood et al., 1999), yet unequivocal proof was not ultimately achieved until metagenomic approaches confirmed the central importance of bacteria in marine natural product biosynthesis (Piel, 2009). The success of the metagenomic method is based on the relatively unbiased sequence analysis of total environmental DNA, which in the examples discussed here involves the marine organism and its associated microflora. Large clonal libraries often numbering in the millions are prepared and screened by phenotype or genotype to identify biosynthetic genes or pathways of interest (Piel, 2011). However, due to the large size of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters that make them diffi- cult to heterologously express, genotype screens are often preferred over phenotype screens. In this way, the bacterial origin and molecular basis were established for the pederin family of polyketide antitumor agents (onnamide [Piel et al., 2004] and psymberin [Fisch et al., 2009]) from sponges, the bryostatin macrolide anticancer agents from bryozoans (Sudek et al., 2007), and the cyanobactin family of posttranslationally modified ribosomal peptides from ascidians (Schmidt et al., 2005). Onnamide, psymberin, and bryostatin all share a common biosynthetic strategy involving large, trans-AT PKSs that to date have precluded their heterologous expression; this is in contrast to the patellamide and other cyanobactin ribosomal peptides whose biosynthetic gene clusters are considerably smaller allowing not only for functional expression but also for their genetic remodeling (Donia et al., 2008). These seminal studies confirm the power of metagenomics in capturing the genetic blueprint of natural product biosynthesis in marine invertebrates and point toward the future biotechnological approaches in helping solve the supply problem that often limits marine natural products from clinical development. Some Marine Drug Discovery Success Stories To date, there are seven therapeutic agents (four anticancer, one antiviral, one pain control, and one for hypertriglyceridemia) that derive from the marine environment in some sense (Mayer et al., 2010). Of these, two are the actual chemical structure as isolated, and five others are synthetic agents that capture their chemical idea from a marine product. In addition, a further 13 agents are in phase I, II, or III clinical trials (Table 1). Figure 2A summarizes the collected sources of organisms that have yielded these agents and reveals that mollusks, sponges, and tunicates are the richest collected source of these most valuable to substances. However, as noted above, the collected source has oftentimes been shown or is strongly suspected of harboring or feeding upon microorganisms that are the actual producers of the bioactive agent. Figure 2B displays the actual or suspected metabolic source of the most important agents and reveals that heterotrophic bacteria and cyanobacteria are the real metabolic jewels of the world’s oceans, accounting for fully 80% of these clinical trial and approved pharmaceutical agents. An early finding of the marine drug discovery field was that the Caribbean sponge Cryptotethia crypta possessed metabolites with a very interesting but relatively simple modification of a nucleoside; the normal 2-deoxyribose ring of deoxythymine and uracil are replaced by b-D-arabinofuranose (Bergmann et al., 1957). Ensuing biological and medicinal chemistry exploration of the impacts of such a subtle alteration revealed that cytosine arabinoside was a potent disrupter of DNA replication and led to cellular toxicity (Brunton et al., 2011), while the arabinoside derivative of adenosine had antiviral effects (Sagar et al., 2010). Metabolic activation of Ara-C to the corresponding triphosphate yields a substrate mimic of deoxycytidine 50 -triphosphate, and following incorporation into the DNA backbone, inhibits the DNA polymerase as well as DNA repair enzymes. While Ara-C has found greatest utility in inducing remissions of acute myelocytic leukemia, more significantly these discoveries from nature helped illuminate nucleoside chemistry as a viable therapeutic strategy that later gained favor in antiviral chemotherapy. Soon after the discovery of unusual nucleoside sponge-based chemistry, potent anticancer activity was detected in extracts of the tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata. However, it would be nearly 30 years until the structure of the active compound, ecteinascidin 743 (ET-743, = trabectedin), was finally elucidated (Rinehart Table 1. Continued Clinical Status Compound Name Natural Product or Derivative Collected Source Organism Predicted Biosynthetic Source Biosynthetic Class of Agent Molecular Target Disease Area Phase I Bryostatin 1 Natural Product Bryozoan Bacterium Polyketide Protein kinase C Cancer, Alzheimer’s Phase I Pseudopterosins Natural Product Soft Coral Bacterium? Diterpene glycoside Eicosanoid metabolism Wound healing Additional perspectives on approved FDA drugs and clinical trial agents that were derived or inspired by marine natural products can be found in Mayer et al. (2010) and Newman and Cragg (2010). Chemistry & Biology 19, January 27, 2012 ª2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved 89 Chemistry & Biology Review
Cel Chemistry Biology Review ns (1 ngi(1) 12 二 f their distin and ch physiological and metab 1eo 198 det uesch tely.this need w et by semisy ne 2001). ase I andclin ca ials of dol 10an of the bacterium p o lack of effic y and induced p ral ne oathy How as et al..2 On cells,the mec of a ing of another analog of dolastatin ely ensuing p53-inde ndent apoptosis.The sub cellular target has rotein pre ent on the surface of Hodakin's lymphoma cells ve of D ound, d in a highly efte ated age as to b abou vtotoxic effect (Soares et al 201 approval of this agent for use in Hodgkin's lymp The utility of Y so tar has been in the tre aplas rge cel nted in August 201 g with other tumor types A peptide toxin ory resu the y as a therapeu epa 010.T through bind as an into the by inal fluid like it is injecte oon-like pain this is auseful the additional benefit with other agents( an et al not inducing tolerance.Additional conotoxins are i clinica he ic portion of the molecu d are widely er ved tool compounds in neurotoxin research he potent activity.and this (Daly and Craik,2011 fish oil in the clic keto rise to eribulin N ated.includi ar eof 731 Daltons and19 chiral 2011) This p y la HA22-603 n the tre it of drug refractory breast The fis sed this material are to the of app oved anti. cancer agents from the marine environment en/US/adirect/gskprm?cmd- t id: ahle linker to ad the notent this atin 10,first reportec treated patients, by the om the Indi n198 90Chemistry&Biology 19 January 27,01201 Esevier Ltd All rights rese
et al., 1990; Wright et al., 1990). Commercialized by Pharmamar as Yondelis, its development was severely hampered by lack of compound supply. Ultimately, this need was met by semisynthesis from the microbial natural product, cyanosafracin B, a fermentation product of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens (Cuevas et al., 2000). On cells, the mechanism of action of ET-743 interacts with DNA, and results in a G2/M block and ensuing p53-independent apoptosis. The subcellular target has been identified as the minor groove of DNA; once bound, it interferes with functioning of the Nucleotide Excision Repair system so as to bring about a cytotoxic effect (Soares et al., 2011). The utility of Yondelis so far has been in the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas and relapsed ovarian cancer, although clinical trials are ongoing with other tumor types. A third marine anticancer agent success story results from the 1986 discovery of the polyether metabolite halichondrin A from the sponge Halichondria okadai (Hirata and Uemura, 1986). The natural product was subsequently shown to possess exquisite cancer cell toxicity through an antitubulin mechanism, and perhaps more importantly, have a new mechanism of action by binding near the vinca site on b-tubulin but having rather different biochemical effects, including microtubule dynamics, as compared with other agents (Jordan et al., 2005). During the course of synthetic efforts in this area, it was found that the macrocyclic portion of the molecule was responsible for the potent biological activity, and this could be enhanced through modification of the macrolactone functionality to a macrocarbocyclic ketone, giving rise to eribulin (Yeung, 2011). Although simplified in structure compared to the natural product, its commercial chemical synthesis is nothing short of heroic with an overall molecular size of 731 Daltons and 19 chiral centers. Eisai Pharmaceuticals in the U.S. recently launched this agent under the product name Halaven and it is quickly finding utility in the treatment of drug refractory breast cancer (Menis and Twelves, 2011). The most recent addition to the arsenal of approved anticancer agents from the marine environment is brentuximab vedotin, a chimeric antibody attached through a protease-cleavable linker to a derivative of the potent antitubulin agent dolastatin 10 (Katz et al., 2011). Dolastatin 10, first reported in 1987 by the Pettit group from the Indian Ocean sea hare Dolabella auricularia (Pettit et al., 1987), was later found to originate from the gastropod’s cyanobacterial (Symploca sp.) diet (Luesch et al., 2001). Phase I and II clinical trials of dolastatin 10 and the water-soluble analog auristatin PE were unsuccessful due to lack of efficacy and induced peripheral neuropathy. However, linking of another analog of dolastatin 10, namely, monomethyl auristatin E, to an antibody that targets CD30, a cell membrane protein present on the surface of Hodgkin’s lymphoma cells, has resulted in a highly effective and well tolerated agent, brentuximab vendotin (Katz et al., 2011). An accelerated FDA approval of this agent for use in Hodgkin’s lymphoma and anaplastic large cell lymphoma was granted in August 2011 and is marketed as Adcetris by Seattle Genetics. A peptide toxin from the fish-hunting marine mollusk, Conus magus, has found utility as a therapeutic for severe pain (Teichert and Olivera, 2010). The u-conotoxin peptide known as ziconotide (Prialt) functions through binding as an antagonist to N-type voltage-gated calcium channels. Because of its peptide nature, it must be administered as an infusion directly into the cerebrospinal fluid much like it is injected via a harpoon-like structure in nature to immobilize its prey. For patients with severe chronic pain, this is a useful agent and has the additional benefit of not inducing tolerance. Additional conotoxins are in clinical development with potential applications in pain management and are widely employed tool compounds in neurotoxin research (Daly and Craik, 2011). While the benefits of fish oil in the diet are widely known and appreciated, including lowered coronary arteriosclerosis risk, a product (Lovaza) has recently appeared on the market with the specific therapeutic goal of reducing serum triglycerides (Dayspring, 2011). This product is composed of the ethyl esters of various u-3 fatty acids obtained from fish, mainly comprised of EPA (20:5n3) and DHA (22:6n3), administered as 400 mg/day. The fish used in making this material are reported as coming from the South Pacific and to include anchovies, herring, salmon, mackerel, smelts, and jacks (http://www.gsksource.com/gskprm/ en/US/adirect/gskprm?cmd=ProductDetailPage&product_id= 1250802208236&featureKey=601474). Combined with diet and exercise, this agent has been shown to significantly lower serum triglycerides in treated patients, principally triglyceride and VLDL-cholesterol levels, and may therefore have health benefits Sponge (4) Tunicates (3) Soft corals (1) Byrozoan (1) Mollusks (7) Worms (1) Fish (1) Fungii (1) Bacteria (1) Bacteria (12) Cyanobacteria (4) Fungi (1) Microalgae (1) Macroorganisms (2) A B Figure 2. Pie Charts Illustrating the Collected Sources and Predicted Biosynthetic Sources of Marine Derived or Inspired Drugs and Clinical Trial Agents (A) Pie chart illustrating the original collected sources of marine natural product derived or inspired agents currently as approved drugs or in clinical trials (20 total). (B) Pie chart of the marine-derived drugs and clinical trial agents divided by their subsequently shown or predicted source organisms (20 total). Cyanobacteria are differentiated from other bacteria in this chart because of their distinctive and characteristic physiological and metabolic capabilities. 90 Chemistry & Biology 19, January 27, 2012 ª2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved Chemistry & Biology Review
Chemistry Biology Review Cell Cyanobacteria(29) Sponges(43)ET-743 from an invertebrate-associated,uncultured marine Fung(1】 from the marine bacterium tropica (Gulder and Moore Algae/Plants(26) Tunicates(1) Cnidarians(6) Fish(1) Worms (1) Pie Cha Saecteds of Marin onged inhibitory activity in tumors nd ked whole blo er tis e al, 20 m the for their useful pharmacological edical rese ch (121 totall such as lowe ed risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with dyslipdemia(Barter and Ginsberg,2008) product drug candidate. s (alon with atalytic core in whi tant for agents (one in phase and two in phase trials)are a while its chl oup is fundamental to its ersibl conjugates of dolastatin 10 analogs,and are clos sely r activity (Gu lder and 2010 promising marine derived or inspired agents is ven strong.and led the b esis of nide a in the th market CoA rug discovery efforts is to bring g an gthe three side chains(F ve he n ome aspects of structure shins a Among these. of this rec or,saxitoxin from Alaskan butter clams(bu d ng iquio and M oe.2008,wh9 as th of the bis mach agents were critical defining sodiumc annel function electiv crease in mide oduts for saleas re ivate eolectedrotgnoth wo diverg s co ining ger and a ati nlants)are the sourres While lations to the strain of most of these u seful tool comp y m n Su cess Stories from Marine Chemical Biology of ecombinant technigue ay be ded it this a trans drug ca inary can ule often provide clue s to how an organism ters autotoxicity o one app cn p the ad nalogs to address structure-activity relatic dres sed again by ha ving access to the comple gen me Chemistry Biology 19.January 27.2012 02012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved 91
such as lowered risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with dyslipdemia (Barter and Ginsberg, 2008). As noted above, some 13 agents with a marine origin are in current clinical trials, 11 with an indication for cancer, one for cognition and schizophrenia, one for Alzheimer’s (along with cancer), and one for wound healing. Interestingly, three of these agents (one in phase II and two in phase I trials) are antibody conjugates of dolastatin 10 analogs, and are closely related to brentuximab vedotin as described above. Thus, the pipeline of promising marine derived or inspired agents is very strong, and we will certainly see several of these agents enter the marketplace and clinic in the coming years (Mayer et al., 2010). While the ‘‘holy grail’’ of drug discovery efforts is to bring an actual product to the clinic, marine natural products have a rich history of providing a wealth of toxins and other agents that are very useful in cell biology and pharmacological research. Early discoveries along these lines include kainic acid from the red alga Digenia simplex that has become the defining ligand of this receptor, saxitoxin from Alaskan butter clams (but deriving from their diet of microalgae) and tetrodotoxin from the Puffer fish (deriving from symbiotic bacteria); both of these latter agents were critical in defining sodium channel function. Subsequently, a number of commercial providers offer marine natural products for sale as research biochemicals. Figure 3 details the ‘‘collected’’ origin of these products (121 different products), and reveals that sponges, cyanobacteria and algae/plants (microalgae, macroalgae, and aquatic plants) are the sources of most of these useful tool compounds. Success Stories from Marine Chemical Biology We have witnessed a transformation in marine natural product biosynthesis over the past decade that has moved the field of one of basic curiosity of how complex organic molecules are constructed to one of application in which basic discoveries are now addressing supply issues and delivering designer analogs to address structure-activity relationships. While there have been many success stories over the past years (Lane and Moore, 2011), we highlight here two examples, one involving the proteasome inhibitor salinosporamide A from a cultured marine bacterium and the second involving the anticancer agent ET-743 from an invertebrate-associated, uncultured marine bacterium (Figure 4). One of the most promising proteasome inhibitor drug candidates currently in human clinical trials is salinosporamide A (Marizomib; Potts et al., 2011), a natural product first isolated from the marine bacterium S. tropica (Gulder and Moore, 2010). Salinosporamide A possesses a complex, densely functionalized g-lactam-b-lactone pharmacophore that is chemically distinct from bortezomib (Velcade) and other peptide-based proteasome inhibitors that as a group bind to the catalytic b subunit of the 20S proteasome to inhibit its function and thereby the cell’s primary route of regulated proteolysis (Borissenko and Groll, 2007). Significantly, salinosporamide A triggers apoptosis in bortezomib-resistant multiple myeloma cells and has prolonged inhibitory activity in tumors and packed whole blood versus other tissues (Potts et al., 2011). Early data from the ongoing phase I trial of salinosporamide A (NPI-0052, Nereus Pharmaceuticals) report potential clinical benefit in patients with relapsed and relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, thereby demonstrating the exciting clinical promise of this natural product drug candidate. Salinosporamide A is active as a potent and selective irreversible inhibitor against all three proteasomal activities of the 20S catalytic core in which its cyclohexenyl moiety is important for its preferential binding in the S1 site of the proteasomal b subunit, while its chloroethyl group is fundamental to its irreversible activity (Gulder and Moore, 2010). Isotope tracer studies followed by the interrogation of the biosynthetic gene cluster revealed the biogenesis of salinosporamide A in which the three building blocks acetyl-CoA, chloroethylmalonyl-CoA and cyclohexenylalanine jointly contribute to the core bicycle while uniquely providing the three side chains (Figure 5). This observation provided a convenient strategy for the mutasynthesis and engineered biosynthesis of a focused library of novel analogs to evaluate some aspects of structure-activity relationships in this molecular series. Among these, fluorosalinosporamide displays potent ‘‘slowly reversible’’ proteasome inhibitory activity (Eusta´ quio and Moore, 2008), whereas the cyclopentenyl derivative salinosporamide X7 exhibits superior in vivo activity (Nett et al., 2009b). Knowledge of the biosynthetic machinery further enabled the selective increase in salinosporamide A production over the other natural nonchlorinated analogs by control of the pathway regulatory gene salR2, which activates transcription of two divergent operons containing genes specific to the chloroethylmalonyl-CoA pathway (Lechner et al., 2011). While traditional manipulations to the strain and fermentation conditions dramatically improved the production yield of salinosporamide A over 100-fold to 450 mg/liter (Potts and Lam, 2010), the addition of recombinant techniques may be needed if this drug candidate is ultimately approved for clinical use. Beyond enabling biosynthesis, the genetic machinery can often provide clues to how an organism counters autotoxicity. In the case of the actinobacterium S. tropica, which possesses a 20S proteasome, the question of self-resistance was addressed again by having access to the complete genome sequence. Peripheral to the sal biosynthesis genes resides a redundant proteasome b subunit, salI, whose protein product Figure 3. Pie Chart Illustrating the Collected Sources of Marine Natural Products Used as Research Biochemicals Products that are available commercially for their useful pharmacological properties in biomedical research (121 total). Chemistry & Biology 19, January 27, 2012 ª2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved 91 Chemistry & Biology Review
Cel Chemistry Biology PRESS Review OH CO.H 5R-Prostagandin A(15R-PGA) 4。0 合合o HO E7389 (Halaven) N w《。 ructures of the Approved Druas n or Inspired by a Mar e Natural Product and Other Marine Metabolites in the ed sub with tance to sali poramide A.and cro ce to the FDA mic of tota l DNA from the tun Kal s as s re dar h correlated to an A49 mutation in Sall that coincide ET-743 cluster ath et al,2011)t ate ce in the hu al 2011 stance to natural proteasom ct clinic ted that the dual genes were lil bial origir the discovery of new prote ome om the As discu ea lier in this article,the dis (Perez-Matos et al 2007).rather that the host tunicate due to te p y in th ET-743 s achieved th ysis of se roteins and enzyma t a key nonnt 9 Chemistry January7,0 Esevier Ltd All rights reserved
has an altered substrate specificity profile with 30-fold resistance to salinosporamide A, and cross-resistance to the FDAapproved proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (Kale et al., 2011). The molecular basis for evolved resistance in S. tropica was correlated to an A49V mutation in SalI that coincidently correlates to bortezomib acquired resistance in the human proteasome b5 subunit (Franke et al., 2011), suggesting that intrinsic resistance to natural proteasome inhibitors may predict clinical outcomes as well as predict the discovery of new proteasome inhibitors via genome mining. As discussed earlier in this article, the discovery and clinical development of the tunicate-derived ET-743 (Yondelis) is a success story in the marine natural product field for its clinical approval in Europe as an antitumor agent. Its striking structural resemblance to the saframycin family of microbial products was immediately recognized and hinted at a bacterial origin. Metagenomic sequencing of total DNA from the tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata and its associated microbes recently provided a 35 kb contig containing the majority of the putative ET-743 biosynthetic gene cluster (Rath et al., 2011) that closely mirrored the previously characterized saframycin A locus from Streptomyces lavendulae (Koketsu et al., 2010). This work suggested that the individual genes were likely of microbial origin from the g-proteobacterium Candidatus Endoecteinascidia frumentensis, a prevalent microbial member of the community (Pe´rez-Matos et al., 2007), rather that the host tunicate due to codon usage characteristics. Functional support for the putative ET-743 gene locus was achieved through metaproteomic analysis of several biosynthetic proteins and enzymatic confirmation of a key nonribosomal peptide synthetase assembly line reaction Tedanolide Cl Br Br Cl Cl Halomon CO2H OH O 15R-Prostaglandin A2 (15R-PGA2) Ecteinascidin-743 O O O O O O O O H H O O MeO H2N OH H H O O O O O O O O H H O O H H O O O O O O O H H H OH OH HO H H H H H H H H Halichondrin B E7389 (Halaven®) H N H N N N H N N S O O O OCHO OCH3 3 Dolastatin 10 H N H N N N H N O O O O OCH3 OCH3 Brentuximab vedotin H O OH O N H H N N H O NH H2N O O N O O O S cAC10 O O O O Lorvaza® K C G K G A K C S R L M Y C D C T C S G R S G K C S S S O NH2 Ziconotide (Prialt) H O OH O OCH3 O OH O OH O OH O N N OCH3 HO O O AcO OH O S NH HO H3CO O H Figure 4. Chemical Structures of the Approved Drugs Deriving from or Inspired by a Marine Natural Product and Other Marine Metabolites Discussed in the Text One-letter amino acid codes are used for depicting the structure of ziconotide. 92 Chemistry & Biology 19, January 27, 2012 ª2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved Chemistry & Biology Review
Chemistry Biology Review Cell KS,AT.AT,C, A: A月 =0 B2- Y8 vated once a screer campaign dMayr and 2009 wherein the value only obtained subs uent to a Rath et al 2011) the h nd the functional work has the n the not int ate we nto th created b re ne d to path to solve the long and thu the ceutical erm supply of ET y this a Problems Enc untered and Lessons Learned in Marine ances h emphasis on qu ity rather than c stories demonstrate that the marine wodd do not to offer iety in the ay or ph ug cher ace (Fehe and 200 tial number of vith rela arge bi mple sizes.This ugh the de t proc ess,prin structure elucidation c er.is an cadre of quite The n quantities of the comp of the arine natural products are currently ved While miniatu of a e qu The tive in re von tow-cell P more powert d f nan disease at the same tim s(Ng et al rom the cal aow approved drugs from 22.000 (J.B to be col cted, n t cts descri ed)is a to 3.3-fold better th uch as thinly encrusting inv industry av ge(1n5,000-10,0 pou gram quant he trial has indeed been an in whic ed the fac in the industrial set Hur he ed in a few short weeks.Gearing up for he put tha new natur Chemistry Biology 19.January 27.2012 02012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved 93
(Rath et al., 2011). While the ET-743 biosynthetic gene cluster is incomplete and the functional work has only just begun, the preliminary discovery work clearly establishes the molecular basis for its assembly and lays the foundation for future bioengineering efforts to establish a renewable path to solve the longterm supply of ET-743 through microbial fermentation. Problems Encountered and Lessons Learned in Marine Drug Discovery The above success stories demonstrate that the marine world has much to offer human society in the way of pharmaceutical agents, agrochemicals, and research biochemicals. Moreover, a substantial number of marine-derived agents are progressing through the development process, primarily with indications in cancer, but also in pain and inflammation. Beneath this group, however, is an even larger cadre of quite promising leads. The experiences of the marine natural products community over the past 40 years has elevated the approaches and strategies that are currently employed, making compound discovery more focused and structure elucidation a much more efficient process. The recent trend in phenotypic and high content screening appears to be very effective in revealing the potentially useful biological properties of natural products, and has the increased benefit of identifying new targets by which to treat human disease while at the same time being appropriately disease focused. Indeed, the current success rate of discovery from the marine world, namely seven clinically useful and approved drugs from 22,000 (J. Blunt, personal communication) discovered molecular entities (e.g., 1 drug per 3,140 natural products described) is approximately 1.7- to 3.3-fold better than the industry average (1 in 5,000–10,000 tested compounds) (http:// www.phrma.org/sites/default/files/159/rd_brochure_022307. pdf). As one considers further the very rich pipeline of clinical trial agents as well as preclinical candidates, several of which will almost certainly become approved drug agents, the marine world has indeed been an exceptional resource in which to search for new pharmaceutical agents. High-throughput screening technologies have fundamentally changed the face of biology in the industrial setting. Hundreds of thousands of assays can be performed in a matter of days using 1,534-well assay plates, and entire screening campaigns can be completed in a few short weeks. Gearing up for such an effort in terms of robot programming, reagents, assay protocols, and control conditions is time consuming, and not easily reactiFigure 5. Assembly Line Biosynthesis of Salinosporamide and Library Development of Structure Analogs via Mutasynthesis and Other Genetic Engineering Approaches Domain abbreviations for the SalA and SalB multifunctional proteins are as follows: ACP, acyl carrier protein; KS, ketosynthase; AT, acyltransferase; C, condensation; A, adenylation; PCP, peptidyl carrier protein. vated once a screening campaign is completed (Mayr and Bojanic, 2009). Thus, the screening of impure materials wherein the value is only obtained subsequent to a reiterative process of progressive chromatographic separation of components and retesting in the assay does not integrate well into the timeline created by modern HTS (Koehn and Carter, 2005). Indeed, the concept of HTS screening is well suited to screening of pure compound libraries, and thus the pharmaceutical industry has placed emphasis on creation of large libraries of synthetic scaffolds. Unfortunately, this appetite of HTS for large numbers of chemical substances has placed emphasis on quantity rather than quality, and most synthetic libraries are populated by planar molecules of low chemodiversity, and more importantly, do not match well to drug chemical space (Feher and Schmidt, 2003; Rouhi, 2003). Marine drug discovery efforts of the 1970–2000 period worked with relatively large biological sample sizes. This was necessary due to the practicalities of structure elucidation of new and oftentimes unprecedented structure types, thus requiring multimilligram quantities of the compound. At the end of such an exercise, substantial quantities of isolated compound remained, and these could be funneled into biological screening programs. While miniaturization of assays has continued, the reduction in the quantity of needed material for structure elucidation has kept pace to HTS advances (Mayr and Bojanic, 2009). Using microcryoprobe or flow-cell NMR spectrometers in conjunction with ever more powerful MS methods and algorithms, such as that recently reported for de novo sequencing of cyclic peptides (Ng et al., 2009), structures are being solved on the nanomolar and even smaller scale (Molinski, 2010). These technological advances have allowed ever smaller amounts of biological material to be collected, which, in turn, has allowed the exploration of marine species existing in very low biomass in nature, such as thinly encrusting invertebrates or microalgal slimes. With only microgram quantities being isolated, and some being sacrificed to destructive analytical procedures or synthetic modification, an insufficient amount remains to drive a meaningful biological evaluation of these new products. Thus, such studies become more academic enterprises except in cases where total chemical synthesis or biosynthesis can provide a resupply of the compound for meaningful biological assay. Ultimately, it is critical to connect biological properties to these unique natural product structures; otherwise, they come to represent chemical oddities lacking in scientific or biomedical relevance and significance. Indeed, some journals have articulated the publication requirement that new natural products should be evaluated for their biological properties (http://pubs. acs.org/paragonplus/submission/jnprdf/jnprdf_scope.pdf). Chemistry & Biology 19, January 27, 2012 ª2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved 93 Chemistry & Biology Review
Cel Chemistry Biology Review Along-sta ding and related issue to the above nanomole scale lating these crucial connections with industry on an individua xt the am to move ingful development of of ucts to the highly inn wative vet risky approache of academic natural with astoun product ndeed,the NCDDG cture is an ews advance bey nd this etal,2003. isolation and structure elucidation techn logy relatio formulation and in can sometim city and weeksormo This is simply ncluding impro nts through medici surmount this,two The first is to pur chin bel et a e even mo e.g. can he tran on ne gy.this all too on ne in the a de nov hiah approa und data ragm oss this abys hei html) 01 im and hus iror h on n ess to iss rga al pa The mpe ts to for rding rld is the nage biological tissu e lack of de and IMS are thre each with the and in na uc 2009 the Nation the at cells o mag en avor. cies aga (Es into cli and tool ally ne ahts ed fro sub interact with one another through their suite ich to b s it should the field of natural moducts is rapidly evolving to nto exis ts disappea 19a nce,and one such step backwa area very ming years is 4 Chemistry&Biology 19,January 27,2012012 Esevier Ltd All rights reserve
A long-standing and related issue to the above nanomole scale isolation problem has been termed ‘‘crossing the valley of death.’’ While there are several ‘‘valleys’’ in the complex process of drug development, in this context the difficulty is how to move ‘‘earlystage discoveries’’ into ‘‘late-stage preclinical candidates.’’ A disappointingly large number of marine natural products (and other natural products), some with astounding structures and biological properties, are published in the scientific literature as ‘‘exciting leads’’ but never advance beyond this embryonic stage. The needs to advance an agent to the next level include determination of mechanism and site of action, development of structure activity relationships, formulation and in vivo evaluations in animal models for toxicity and efficacy, and characterization of pharmacokinetic parameters and pharmaceutical properties including improvements through medicinal chemistry. Critical to these pursuits is an abundant source of the compound or an improved analog, and this usually requires chemical synthesis or fermentation with the overarching goal of substantial compound production (e.g., gram scale) (Smith et al., 1999). Unfortunately, despite great advances in total chemical synthesis methodology, this goal is all too often not reached, and development of compounds languish due to lack of supply and momentum in the project. Compounding these problems and regardless of the approach undertaken to bridge this gap, there is a general lack of financial resources and mechanisms available for advancing early-stage leads across this abyss. The pharmaceutical industry has fundamentally changed over the last 20 years, with large pharma being ever more risk adverse in their research strategies. Correspondingly, there is some perception that the main site of innovation in drug discovery has shifted to small startup companies and academia (Kaitin, 2010). One model large pharma has employed is to license compounds or purchase entire companies that have successfully navigated the ‘‘valley of death’’ and brought an innovative new therapy to clinical trials. Unfortunately, the financial resources of small companies are necessarily limited, and thus, ironically, success of a research program to advance a candidate is oftentimes intimately linked with the termination of these very same research departments with attendant layoffs of the scientific staff. These structural changes in industry have the net effect of introducing further impediments to forwarding early stage leads to become true clinical candidates. The lack of development of early-stage leads has been a major issue in natural products drug discovery research for some time, and was part of the rationale for formulating Drug Discovery Groups (DDGs) through the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) very successful National Cooperative DDG program. In this program, groups of academic investigators teamed together with partner pharmaceutical companies and the NCI so as to improve the focus of the cancer drug discovery process as well as to have development capacity inherently built into the endeavor. During the 23 year period of the NCDDG program (1984–2007), there were 21 New Investigational Drugs that went into clinical trial (12 small molecules and 9 biologics) that derived from substantial input from this program. Indeed, this is widely perceived as the single most effective granting mechanism by which to bring fundamentally new cancer treatments into existence, and with its disappearance, we have taken a giant step backward. Academic investigators are once again formulating these crucial connections with industry on an individual one-by-one basis. Combined with a greater sensitivity to druggable targets, broad knowledge of disease biology, and the capacity of meaningful development of leads across the valley of death and into the clinic, large Pharma is an invaluable partner to the highly innovative yet risky approaches of academic natural products laboratories. Indeed, the NCDDG structure is an inspired concept that needs to be renewed in some form (Crews et al., 2003). While isolation and structure elucidation technology has advanced enormously in recent years, as noted above, this process when coupled to a biological assay can sometimes take weeks or months. This is simply too slow to compete with the screening of pure compounds with known structures. To surmount this, two options exist. The first is to purify unique natural compounds based on chemical diversity criteria, and then screen these as pure materials of defined composition (Abel et al., 2002). Alternatively, even more rapid techniques of structure elucidation need to be developed so that screening hits can be transformed into compound hits in a matter of minutes to hours. To this end, a growing number of approaches and algorithms using MS data, largely coming from the metabolomics field, are developing de novo structures based on highresolution data and fragmentation pathways. For example, using the complete MS2 and MS3 dataset, the Cyclic Peptide Sequencing web-based program can construct, in a completely automatic fashion and with high accuracy, the structures of cyclic peptide natural products (Mohimani et al., 2011; http:// rofl.ucsd.edu/nrp/index.html). Advances in Ion Mobility and other techniques suggest the possibility that even stereochemical features will be able to be deduced using mass spectrometry alone (Bai et al., 2011). A vision of the not too distant future, similar to the then unrealistic scene in the 1992 movie Medicine Man, is that we will define the structures of novel molecules online, in real time, and by entirely automatic processes. Necessarily, the questions we will ask will shift away from the structure elucidation process to issues of chemical interaction of organisms and their biochemical pathways, systems biology, molecular pharmacology, and biotechnological developments. Another exciting development from the mass spectrometry world is the ability to image biological tissues and cells for their occurrence of specific secondary metabolites. MALDI, DESI, and IMS are three such techniques, each with their assets and drawbacks (Esquenazi et al., 2009). However, the instrumental advances in this area are staggering, and soon we will be looking at the metabolomes of single cells or even of subcellular compartments. This type of MS imaging technology has great utility in locating specific secondary metabolites to particular filament types in complex consortia of bacteria (e.g., cyanobacteria), secondary metabolites associated with morphological features of tissues in macroalgae, and chemical interactions of competing microbial species on agar surfaces (Esquenazi et al., 2009; Gonzalez et al., 2011). These innovative types of experiments and tools are giving fundamentally new insights into how organisms interact with one another through their suite of secondary metabolites. As it should, the field of natural products is rapidly evolving to intersect powerfully with other fields of science, and one such area that should prove very exciting in the coming years is 94 Chemistry & Biology 19, January 27, 2012 ª2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved Chemistry & Biology Review