Echinoderms, a diverse group of marine invertebrates including starfish, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers, have been recognized as prolific sources of structurally diverse natural products. In the past five years, remarkable progress has been made in the isolation, structural elucidation, and pharmacological assessment of these bioactive compounds. These metabolites, including polysaccharides, triterpenoids, steroids, and peptides, demonstrate potent bioactivities such as anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antimicrobial effects, providing valuable insights and scaffolds for drug discovery. This review highlights the structural diversity and biological activities of natural products derived from echinoderms over the last five years, with a particular focus on their structure-activity relationships and therapeutic potential. It also outlines the prospects and challenges for future research, aiming to stimulate further exploration in marine drug discovery.

Ion channels are a type of protein channel that play a vital role in numerous physiological functions by facilitating the passage of ions through cell membranes, thereby enabling ion and electrical signal transmission. As a crucial target for drug action, ion channels have been implicated in various diseases. Many natural products from marine organisms, such as fungi, algae, sponges, and sea cucumber, etc. have been found to have activities related to ion channels for decades. These interesting natural product molecules undoubtedly bring good news for the treatment of neurological and cardiovascular diseases. In this review, 92 marine natural products and their synthetic derivatives with ion channel-related activities that were identified during the period 2000-2024 were systematically reviewed. The synthesis and mechanisms of action of selected compounds were also discussed, aiming to offer insights for the development of drugs targeting ion channels.

Bioassay-guided isolation of the extract from the marine sponge Diacarnus spinipoculum showing inhibitory activity against human transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (hTRPA1) resulted in the isolation of 12 norditerpene cyclic peroxides (1-12) and eight norsesterterpene cyclic peroxides (13-20). Among these, 10 (5-7, 11, 12, 16-20) are unprecedented analogs. Compounds with either a hydroxy (5, 11) or a methoxy (6, 12) group attached to the cyclohexanone moiety were obtained as epimeric mixtures at C-11, while compounds 4, 6, 10, and 12 are likely the artifacts of isolation. The absolute configurations of the new compounds were established based on an NMR-based empirical method and comparison of specific rotation values. Mosher ester analysis revealed the absolute configurations of compounds 17-20. The inhibitory activity of the isolated compounds against hTRPA1 varied significantly depending on their structures, with the norsesterterpenoid 19 displaying the most potent activity (IC50 2.0 μM).

This review is the tenth update of the original article published in 1999 on the application of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry to the analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates and brings coverage of the literature to the end of 2020. Also included are papers that describe methods appropriate to analysis by MALDI, such as sample preparation techniques, even though the ionization method is not MALDI. The review is basically divided into three sections: (1) general aspects such as theory of the MALDI process, matrices, derivatization, MALDI imaging, fragmentation, quantification and the use of arrays. (2) Applications to various structural types such as oligo- and polysaccharides, glycoproteins, glycolipids, glycosides and biopharmaceuticals, and (3) other areas such as medicine, industrial processes and glycan synthesis where MALDI is extensively used. Much of the material relating to applications is presented in tabular form. The reported work shows increasing use of incorporation of new techniques such as ion mobility and the enormous impact that MALDI imaging is having. MALDI, although invented nearly 40 years ago is still an ideal technique for carbohydrate analysis and advancements in the technique and range of applications show little sign of diminishing.

Covering: 2020This review covers the literature published in 2020 for marine natural products (MNPs), with 757 citations (747 for the period January to December 2020) referring to compounds isolated from marine microorganisms and phytoplankton, green, brown and red algae, sponges, cnidarians, bryozoans, molluscs, tunicates, echinoderms, mangroves and other intertidal plants and microorganisms. The emphasis is on new compounds (1407 in 420 papers for 2020), together with the relevant biological activities, source organisms and country of origin. Pertinent reviews, biosynthetic studies, first syntheses, and syntheses that led to the revision of structures or stereochemistries, have been included. A meta analysis of bioactivity data relating to new MNPs reported over the last five years is also presented.