Covering: up to 2008 Ecteinascidins are marine natural products consisting of two or three linked tetrahydroisoquinoline subunits and an active carbinolamine functional group. Their potent antiproliferative activity against a variety of tumor cells makes them attractive candidates for development as anticancer agents. The lead compound, Yondelis ^® (trabectedin, ET-743) is the first marine anticancer agent approved in the European Union for patients with soft tissue sarcoma (STS). Positive results of a large randomized Phase III clinical trial in ovarian cancer have recently been presented. The low amounts present in its natural source, the tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata, made it necessary to develop efficient synthetic procedures. The original total synthesis is reviewed as well as a new semisynthetic process from the readily available cyanosafracin B, which has solved the supply problem.

Two novel oxazole-thiazole containing cyclic hexapeptides, bistratamides M (1) and N (2) have been isolated from the marine ascidian Lissoclinum bistratum (L. bistratum) collected in Raja Ampat (Papua Bar, Indonesia). The planar structure of 1 and 2 was assigned on the basis of extensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The absolute configuration of the amino acid residues in 1 and 2 was determined by the application of the Marfey’s and advanced Marfey’s methods after ozonolysis followed by acid-catalyzed hydrolysis. The interaction between zinc (II) and the naturally known bistratamide K (3), a cyclic hexapeptide isolated from a different specimen of Lissoclinum bistratum, was monitored by ¹H and ¹³C NMR. The results obtained are consistent with the proposal that these peptides are biosynthesized for binding to metal ions. Compounds 1 and 2 display moderate cytotoxicity against four human tumor cell lines with GI₅₀ values in the micromolar range.

Targeting microtubules is the most effective wide-spectrum pharmacological strategy in antitumoral chemotherapy, and current research focuses on reducing main drawbacks: neurotoxicity and resistance. PM534 is a novel synthetic compound derived from the Structure-Activity-Relationship study on the natural molecule PM742, isolated from the sponge of the order Lithistida, family Theonellidae, genus Discodermia (du Bocage 1869). PM534 targets the entire colchicine binding domain of tubulin, covering four of the five centers of the pharmacophore model. Its nanomolar affinity and high retention time modulate a strikingly high antitumor activity that efficiently overrides two resistance mechanisms in cells (detoxification pumps and tubulin βIII isotype overexpression). Furthermore, PM534 induces significant inhibition of tumor growth in mouse xenograft models of human non-small cell lung cancer. Our results present PM534, a highly effective new compound in the preclinical evaluation that is currently in its first human Phase I clinical trial.

Two new bromopyrrole peptides, haloirciniamide A (1) and seribunamide A (2), have been isolated from an Indonesian marine sponge of the genus Ircinia collected in the Thousand Islands (Indonesia). The planar structure of both compounds was assigned on the basis of extensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The absolute configuration of the amino acid residues in 1 and 2 was determined by the application of Marfey’s method. Compound 1 is the first dibromopyrrole cyclopeptide having a chlorohistidine ring, while compound 2 is a rare peptide possessing a tribromopyrrole ring. Both compounds failed to show significant cytotoxicity against four human tumor cell lines, and neither compound was able to inhibit the enzyme topoisomerase I or impair the interaction between programmed cell death protein PD1 and its ligand, PDL1.