A rich source of medicinal herbs from deep waters.

Although the ocean covers 70% of the earth's surface, much of the sea's potential for biological health has yet to be discovered.

For the first time, a group of researchers at Scripps Ocean Institute at the University of California, San Diego showed that the deposits in the deep sea floor are important medicinal sources of bio-containing bacteria. ability to synthesize antibiotic molecules.

CMBB Director of Scripps Institute - William Fenical and colleagues (Photo: nsf.gov) In a two-part report led by a team led by William Fenical, director of the Marine Biotechnology and Biotechnology Center (CMBB) The Scripps Institute has reported the discovery of a new group of bacteria that are capable of producing molecules that can treat infectious diseases and cancer.

Fenical said: 'People often think that the sea floor is a cold, dark and dirty place, but we have shown that it could be a huge source of antibiotics and pharmaceuticals for cancer treatment.' .

First published in October 2002 in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology highlighted the role of new bacteria called actinomycetes from ocean sediments. For more than 45 years, terrestrial actinomycetes have become a source of antibiotic production for the pharmaceutical industry because of their ability to produce natural antibiotics, including important drugs such as streptomycin, actinomycin and vancomycin. Data from this publication provide the first decisive evidence of the prevalence of actinomycetes populations in ocean sediments.

The second publication on January 20, 2003 in the international biochemical journal Angewandte Chemie showed the structure of the new natural product that Fenical's group called Salinosporamide A from this microbial source. The new compound is able to prevent the development of cancer such as human colon carcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer and is most effective for breast cancer. This report opens a series of similar discoveries from the recently discovered Salinospora.

Fenical said: 'This report shows the potential of highly biochemical and highly bioactive products. This seems to be just the tip of the 'iceberg' because of the variety of chemical formulas that have yet to be found '.

Although today there are more than 100 drugs derived from terrestrial microorganisms such as penicillin - the most important medicine in medicine - but the potential from terrestrial microbial sources has decreased from nearly 10. last year. Pharmacists have been searching for terrestrial bacteria capable of producing drugs but the results have been modest. According to Fenical, more research is needed because of the increasing resistance of bacteria.

Amazingly, the oceans with the most diverse ecosystems on the planet have not been adequately noticed as a potential source of actinomycete . Recognizing this, Fenical's group has started research on marine environments to find important new microorganisms in pharmaceutical discoveries.

His team has improved new tools and methods to collect more types of ocean sediments including optimized sample collection devices to effectively capture samples from deep waters. These samples originate from mud bottoms at depths of more than 1,000m from the Atlantic and Pacific, Red Sea, Gulf of California. They also perfected new methods to select these samples from deep waters (these samples contain more than a billion microorganisms per cubic centimeter), cultivate these microorganisms, classify them with Genetic engineering and collation of their metabolic products with antibiotic and anti-cancer properties.

Bacterial actinomycete (Photo: soils.usda)

Through cultivation and genetic analysis, the Fenical group discovered a new strain called Salinospora, a form of actinomycete bacteria found in tropical and subtropical waters but never found in soil. immediately.

Their physiological studies show very positive results. Of the 100 strains of the microorganisms tested, 80% of the strains produced molecules that could inhibit cancer cell growth. About 30% can kill fungi and pathogenic bacteria. Based on the wide distribution of Salinospora the Fenical group predicts that there are several thousand strains exist. Fenical said 'nothing is too much to say that such biological activity in a group of simple organisms has never been observed before'.

These discoveries have been patented by the University of California and Nereus Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pharmaceutical company. buy copyright for production. Nereus is a four-year-old biotech company in San Diego, California that develops new drugs from a variety of sources.

Mr. Kobi Sethna, chairman of the board of Nereus Pharmaceuticals Inc. said 'New discoveries at the Scripps Research Institute with the production of Nereus can lead to an endless supply of medicine for the pharmaceutical industry in the near future'

Fenical said: 'These findings confirm a future of finding antibiotics and proving the fact that the ocean is a new and unpredictable source of microorganisms. This also indicates how little we are and need to invest in more ocean research. '

In addition to Fenical, there are co-authors in magazines including: Tracy Mincer, Paul Jensen, Christopher Kauffman, Robert Feling and Greg Buchanan.