Abstract
The marine environment havens a massive number of species that are the
source of a wide range of structurally diverse bioactive secondary metabolites. The
importance of marine natural products (MNPs) in drug discovery has been documented
extensively with their impact on the development of existing drugs. Despite the
promising activity of MNPs, most of them suffer from their complex structures,
instability, and poor solubility. The synthetic derivatives of natural products cover the
chemical derivatization of scaffolds isolated from marine sources and are highly
applicable as chemical biosynthesis and structural modifications provide new insights
into the bioactivities and the dealings against specific targets that are important for
exploring the indefinite chemical space. Also, engineering of the biosynthetic pathway
has shown its ability to drive analogies arising from a variety of alterations, including
replacement of residues, feeding with non-natural precursors, and enzyme knockout.
Such arrays of synthetic compounds execute functionally distinct biological activities
against various microbial pathogens, considering MNPs valuable products in the
current era of drug discovery. This chapter describes the strategies and principles for
the development of synthetic drugs, as divulged by several fruitful medicines that are
derived from marine origin.
Keywords: Antimicrobial peptide, Baringolin, Chloral hydrate, Chrysophaentin, Clathrodin, Drug discovery, Epinecidin, Genetic mutation, Genome mining, Holothuroidin 2, Isatin, Marine organisms, Marine natural products, Marine sponges, Oroidin, Penicimonoterpene, Structural modification, Structure-activity relationship, Synthetic antimicrobials, Turgencin.