The primary focus of the project is the isolation and characterization of prototype antiinfective compounds from soft corals collected in tropical and semi-tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean. To date, little work has been done to characterize natural products isolated from soft corals as antiinfective agents; this combined with the numerous assays available at The Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Center for the Development of Natural Projects makes it an ideal project for the discovery of new prototype antiinfective agents. Natural product research during the last few decades has yielded thousands of new organic compounds from the marine environment. Dr. Michael Boyd, of the Laboratory of Drug Discovery Research and Development at the National Cancer Institute, indicates that the mass screening of complex extracts of natural products, followed by bioassay-guided isolation and identification of new natural-product antitumor chemotypes, has proved to be abundantly fruitful. Dr. Boyd goes on to say that mass screening has proved to be the most effective means of discovering entirely new chemotypes not even suspected to have relevant biochemical properties. 1. The objective of this proposed research project is to screen soft corals from the Pacific Ocean for potential treatment of diseases. The active component(s) of those extracts showing promising activity will be isolated using preparative and semi-preparative high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). The chemical structures of the biologically active secondary metabolites will be determined by spectroscopic and chemical methods, in particular, through the use of two-dimensional Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) techniques. Methods for providing sufficient quantities for in vitro testing via synthesis, semi-synthesis, or resolution will be addressed for promising compounds.
| Gochfeld, D J; Hamann, M T (2001) Isolation and biological evaluation of filiformin, plakortide F, and plakortone G from the Caribbean sponge Plakortis sp. J Nat Prod 64:1477-9 |
