Marine invertebrates have been identified for a long time by chemists as likely sources of new biomedicinal substances. Pharmacologists, physiologists and biochemists have demonstrated that many of these novel marine products modify fundamental life processes in ways suggesting biomedical applications. These molecules can serve as leads to guide the pharmaceutical and chemical industries in developing new products.
This research aims specifically at Caribbean gorgonian octocorals as a likely resource for novel anti-tuberculosis natural products. Since less than 20% of the species of gorgonian octocorals known to exist in the Caribbean region have been assessed chemically for their secondary metabolite composition, and many of these have been shown to produce metabolites possessing potent chemotherapeutic properties, gorgonians from this region have the potential to contain a wealth of novel drugs. Specifically, during the four years of this research we plan to carefully scrutinize the pharmacology and chemistry of 75 representative species belonging to all the major Caribbean gorgonian genera. Initial extraction with solvents of different polarities (e.g., hexane, methylene chloride, and methanol) will be monitored using anti-tuberculosis activity assays. Only gorgonian extract residues possessing strong anti-tuberculosis properties will be screened further for chemical structural features by 1H- and 13C-NMR spectroscopy. Further purification by chromatography (column, GC, LC) and determination of molecular structure will proceed if warranted by the screening results. Structure elucidation will rely heavily on spectral methods (e.g., 1H and 13C NMR, MS, IR, UV) and X-ray diffraction techniques.
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