Abstract

Within the past fifty years, drugs from the sea have become an increasing
industry for the identification and isolation of new medicinal agents. Bryozoa, sea
squirts and corals are examples of many organisms that have been collected and
tested for medicinal activity. Clinical testing’s of drugs such as bryostatin 1 and
Et-743 have shown much success against various cancers such as kidney,
prostate, and leukemia, etc.. However, there are many problems affecting the
economical availability of such drugs such as: 1. the potential endangerment of
marine organisms due to massive quantities required for clinical use; 2. seasonal
availability of the organisms and 3. numerous synthetic steps resulting in low
percent yields to name a few.
Detailed analyses conducted of the environment of these marine
organisms resulted in the composition of chemicals that were used as an artificial
property to mimic the host organisms and their environments, resulting in the
cultivation of the bacteria suggestively responsible for the production of these
active compounds. Other experiments conducted, involved the esterification of
bryostatin 1 under various conditions, in order to show that such compounds
produced, are more environmentally obtainable as opposed to being specie
dependent. Computational studies binding Fe3+ to different marine natural
products was also conducted in order to determine any siderophore properties
that each may have. From this study cell line tests were conducted in order to
determine the efficacy of a bryostatin-Fe3+ complex in comparison to bryostatin 1.
Preliminary results from all the artificial media used to isolate and produce
the bryostatins and Et-743 showed prominence; however, results were
inconclusive due low detection values and marginal errors.