The Potential Biomedical Application of Cyclopeptides from Marine Natural Products

The largely unexplored marine would represent a unique and excellent resource of new natural products. The chemical and biological diversity of the marine environment formed a practically unlimited resource of new bioactive substances. Marine natural products captured the attention of natural products chemists because they exhibit significant and extremely potent biological activities. With the development of technologies and methodologies for structure elucidation, organic synthesis and biological assay, more and more marine natural products are isolated and investigated, ranging from simple peptides to macrocyclicpolyethers. Due to its bioactive property, marine natural products have yielded a considerable number of drug candidates. Some are already on the market or will be approved soon, such as Ziconotide (Prialt; Elan Pharmaceuticals), the first marine-derived compound approved in the United States for the treatment of pain. This compound is a peptide originally discovered in a tropical cone snail, while most of them are still in preclinical development. Naturally occurring cyclopeptides, in particular, exhibit a wide variety of potent biological activities. Some exhibit potent insecticidal activity and antimicrobial activity, while others have strong antifungal and antiproliferative activity. Hence, cyclopepiptides can be potential drug candidates. This review highlights the potential biomedical application of cyclopeptides from marine nature products.