Gudiña Eduardo J, Teixeira José A, Rodrigues Lígia R
CEB-Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
Mar Drugs. 2016 Feb 18;14(2):38. doi: 10.3390/md14020038.
Marine microorganisms possess unique metabolic and physiological features and are an important source of new biomolecules, such as biosurfactants. Some of these surface-active compounds synthesized by marine microorganisms exhibit antimicrobial, anti-adhesive and anti-biofilm activity against a broad spectrum of human pathogens (including multi-drug resistant pathogens), and could be used instead of existing drugs to treat infections caused by them. In other cases, these biosurfactants show anti-cancer activity, which could be envisaged as an alternative to conventional therapies. However, marine biosurfactants have not been widely explored, mainly due to the difficulties associated with the isolation and growth of their producing microorganisms. Culture-independent techniques (metagenomics) constitute a promising approach to study the genetic resources of otherwise inaccessible marine microorganisms without the requirement of culturing them, and can contribute to the discovery of novel biosurfactants with significant biological activities. This paper reviews the most relevant biosurfactants produced by marine microorganisms with potential therapeutic applications and discusses future perspectives and opportunities to discover novel molecules from marine environments.
海洋微生物具有独特的代谢和生理特性，是生物表面活性剂等新生物分子的重要来源。海洋微生物合成的一些这类表面活性化合物对多种人类病原体（包括多重耐药病原体）具有抗菌、抗黏附和抗生物膜活性，可替代现有药物治疗由它们引起的感染。在其他情况下，这些生物表面活性剂显示出抗癌活性，可设想作为传统疗法的替代方案。然而，海洋生物表面活性剂尚未得到广泛研究，主要是因为与其产生微生物的分离和培养相关的困难。不依赖培养的技术（宏基因组学）是一种很有前景的方法，可用于研究原本难以培养的海洋微生物的遗传资源，而无需对其进行培养，并有助于发现具有显著生物活性的新型生物表面活性剂。本文综述了海洋微生物产生的具有潜在治疗应用的最相关生物表面活性剂，并讨论了从海洋环境中发现新分子的未来前景和机会。
