Apoptosis as a practical target for identifying anticancer agents of marine origin

Natural products and their synthetic analogs are widely used as anticancer drugs. Many anticancer drugs originated from cytotoxic compounds, and most have been shown to induce apoptosis in cancer cells. Based on the variety of their modes of action, the identification of new cytotoxic compounds may lead to the discovery of new types of drugs. Recently, much attention has been given to the metabolites of marine organisms due to their strong cytotoxicity. For example, eribulin mesylate, a synthetic analog of halichondrin B isolated from H. okadai Kadota, has been developed as an anticancer drug. Novel cytotoxic substances, such as halichonines, bisebromoamides, and biselyngbyasides, have been isolated from marine organisms as apoptosis-inducing agents. All of these compounds may possess therapeutic potential, and thus, efforts to identify new apoptosis-inducing agents of marine origin may contribute to the discovery of new pharmaceuticals.