Chemical and pharmacological exploration in marine cyanobacteria

Abstract

The marine environment is considered the "cradle of life", being also a source of unique natural products that are highly complex, mostly accumulated in living organisms. In this context, the cyanobacteria are emerging as an important source of bioactive compounds. This project aims to chemical prospecting in pharmacological perspective using strains of marine cyanobacteria collected from Ubatuba-SP different environment. The species will be isolated and identified and their chemical profiles will be assessed, using extraction techniques followed by the application of various chromatographic methods (TLC, CC and HPLC), one and two-dimensional NMR and hyphenated LC-MS technique, with the aim of helping in the study of dereplication (using the database MarinLit ®). At the same time will be performed of antimicrobial and antitumor activity evaluation of extracts, fractions and substances that can be isolated in small scale or even in compounds mix, directing the chemical study for the detection of major constituents of lineages with promising bioactivities. The cultivation technique of these strains will then be optimized, aiming at the production of secondary metabolites in larger scale for isolation and purification of bioactive metabolites. Isolated and purified substances will have their structure determined and/or elucidated by means of spectroscopic and spectrometric methods of analysis (UV, IR, NMR, MS), besides LC-MS. The proposal of this work is justify based on the relevance of the discovery of biologically active agents from the marine environment, with possible application in the pharmaceutical area as inputs to the health.