Marine organisms of the South Atlantic as a source of new pharmaceutical compounds” Conferencia Plenaria

PALERMO, J.

Ribeirao Preto, Brasil

Congreso; 6th International Congress of Pharmaceutical Sciences, CIFARP 2007; 2007

Universidad de Sao Paulo

Conferencia Plenaria (1 hora) Marine organisms, especially benthic marine invertebrates are a prolific source of chemical biodiversity. Tipically, these organisms must compete for substrates, light and nutrients, and defend themselves form pathogenic microorganisms and predators, all this with the lack of an immunological system, or escape means, and in many cases without physical defense. For these reasons some of these invertebrates biosynthesize their own chemical weapons, bioactive substances which enable them to survive in such competitive ecosystems. These secondary metabolites generally display interesting biological and pharmacological activities such as antibiotic, antitumor and antiviral activity. The most attracting aspect of marine natural products is that they are structurally different from terrestrial natural products, thus providing a good source of new leads for pharmacological research. The most important results form our group in the search of new bioactive molecules from marine organisms of the South Atlantic will be presented.