Title:The Fungal Metabolites with Potential Antiplasmodial Activity
Volume: 25
Issue: 31
Author(s): Bin Yang, Jingxia Huang, Xuefeng Zhou, Xiuping Lin, Juan Liu, Shengrong Liao, Junfeng Wang, Feng-an Liu, Huaming Tao*Yonghong Liu
Affiliation:
- School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515,China
Keywords:
Antimalarial, Plasmodium parasites, fungus, natural products, bioactive products, antimicrobial agents,
marine environments.
Abstract: Malaria caused by Plasmodium parasites is amongst many prevalent public health
concerns in several tropical regions of the world. Nowadays, the parasite resistance patterns to
most currently used drugs in therapy and insecticides have created an urgent need for new
chemical entities exhibiting new modes of action and management strategies. Fungus has been
proven to be an excellent source of biologically active compounds, which have been screened
for antiplasmodial activity as potential sources of new antimalarial drugs. This review summarizes
the current 255 natural products from fungus, which may possess antimalarial activity
and can be classified as sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, sesterterpenes, alkaloids, peptides depsipeptides,
xanthones, anthraquinones, anthrones, bioxanthracenes, bixanthones, preussomerins,
depsidones, phenols, trichothecenes, azaphliones, macrolides, and steroids. However, the
treatments available for malaria are limited. Thus, the identification of novel antimicrobial
agents should be continued, and all possible strategies should be explored. Carrying forward
the antimalarial screening in exited terrestrial and marine natural products library, and finding
the new natural products in new resources, particularly those living in marine environments,
are still important approaches to find new antimalarial agents. Unusual marine environments
are associated with chemical diversity, leading to a resource of novel active substances for the
development of bioactive products. Finding new antimalarial natural products in marine fungus,
particularly those living in deep-sea and special marine environments, is an important
approach to identify novel active agents.
