risk of contamination by other microorganisms. The most fundamental concern,
however, is a lack of adequate knowledge to date on the culturing conditions for
marine microorganisms. With many pharmaceutical companies continuing to
research solutions to problems with marine microorganism fermentation, methods
for addressing these issues are likely to emerge in the near future. Indeed, the U.S.
company Martek Bioscience is currently mass-culturing the microalga Crypthecodinium cohnii to produce docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
This chapter will examine the marine organism-derived antibacterial,
anti-inflammatory, and anticancer substances that have received attention to date as
pharmaceutical materials. It will also share about active research efforts currently
under way on research reagents derived from these materials, as well as ingredients
in cosmetics and functional foods and new biomaterials.
8.2 Pharmaceutical Materials
8.2.1 Anti-cancer Agents
One of the most active areas of bioactive substance development using marine
organisms is the development of anticancer agents. Collaborative research with
industry and academia to develop anticancer agents from marine organisms has
been taking place under the leadership of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the
U.S. The NCI’s search for anticancer effects in various sponges have shown anticancer activity appearing frequently in the sponges (phylum Porifera), tunicates,
bony fish (superclass Osteichthyes), and comb jellies (phylum Ctenophora). The
chief methods currently used to search for anticancer effects are in vitro and in vivo
approaches using cancer cells from humans and other animals; a variety of simpler
in vitro approaches are also used for mechanism-based searches, including DNA
cleavage assays, topoisomerase assays, protein kinase C assays, collagenase assays,
and angiopoiesis inhibitor assays (Singh et al. 2008).
One fast, simple, and highly sensitive in vitro anticancer effect assay used with
cancer cells employs KB human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. This approach
involves observing the cancer cell toxicity of search specimens. Typically, an ED 50
value (50% effective dose) value of 20 lg/ml or less is viewed as a significant
anticancer effect for crude extract, and 10 lg/ml or less for the pure substance.
One search method using live animals as the P388 murine leukemia approach. In
P388 searches, an increase of lifespan (ILS) of 20% or more in mice (T/G 120%) is
seen as indicating lack of significance as an anticancer agent. Other approaches
using L1210 lymphoid leukemia, B16 melanoma, M5076 sarcoma, and Mx-1
human mammary tumors are used for more sophisticated measurement of anticancer effects. For these searches, a T/G of 150% or more is seen as indicating that
a substance is worth being used for clinical testing.
NCI is currently working to develop in vitro search approaches using around 60
types of human cancer cells, including leukemia, lung cancer, colon cancer, central
8.1 Introduction
231
however, is a lack of adequate knowledge to date on the culturing conditions for
marine microorganisms. With many pharmaceutical companies continuing to
research solutions to problems with marine microorganism fermentation, methods
for addressing these issues are likely to emerge in the near future. Indeed, the U.S.
company Martek Bioscience is currently mass-culturing the microalga Crypthecodinium cohnii to produce docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
This chapter will examine the marine organism-derived antibacterial,
anti-inflammatory, and anticancer substances that have received attention to date as
pharmaceutical materials. It will also share about active research efforts currently
under way on research reagents derived from these materials, as well as ingredients
in cosmetics and functional foods and new biomaterials.
8.2 Pharmaceutical Materials
8.2.1 Anti-cancer Agents
One of the most active areas of bioactive substance development using marine
organisms is the development of anticancer agents. Collaborative research with
industry and academia to develop anticancer agents from marine organisms has
been taking place under the leadership of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the
U.S. The NCI’s search for anticancer effects in various sponges have shown anticancer activity appearing frequently in the sponges (phylum Porifera), tunicates,
bony fish (superclass Osteichthyes), and comb jellies (phylum Ctenophora). The
chief methods currently used to search for anticancer effects are in vitro and in vivo
approaches using cancer cells from humans and other animals; a variety of simpler
in vitro approaches are also used for mechanism-based searches, including DNA
cleavage assays, topoisomerase assays, protein kinase C assays, collagenase assays,
and angiopoiesis inhibitor assays (Singh et al. 2008).
One fast, simple, and highly sensitive in vitro anticancer effect assay used with
cancer cells employs KB human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. This approach
involves observing the cancer cell toxicity of search specimens. Typically, an ED 50
value (50% effective dose) value of 20 lg/ml or less is viewed as a significant
anticancer effect for crude extract, and 10 lg/ml or less for the pure substance.
One search method using live animals as the P388 murine leukemia approach. In
P388 searches, an increase of lifespan (ILS) of 20% or more in mice (T/G 120%) is
seen as indicating lack of significance as an anticancer agent. Other approaches
using L1210 lymphoid leukemia, B16 melanoma, M5076 sarcoma, and Mx-1
human mammary tumors are used for more sophisticated measurement of anticancer effects. For these searches, a T/G of 150% or more is seen as indicating that
a substance is worth being used for clinical testing.
NCI is currently working to develop in vitro search approaches using around 60
types of human cancer cells, including leukemia, lung cancer, colon cancer, central
8.1 Introduction
231