Medicinal Chemistry and Marine Life Volume 2: Antidiabetic Potential of Marine Life explores the vast antidiabetic potential of marine organisms, from microbes and macroalgae to invertebrates, fishes, and by-products like fish oils and chitosan. It highlights bioactive marine-derived molecules and lead compounds with proven or emerging antidiabetic activity, bridging insights from pharmaceutical and marine biology research. Key Features: Presents a comprehensive overview of marine-derived antidiabetic agents. Discusses pharmacological mechanisms and lead molecule identification. Explores therapeutic potential across diverse marine species and by-products. Integrates interdisciplinary research from marine biology and pharmaceutical sciences. Serves as the first consolidated reference on marine biota and diabetes management.
The formation of diabetes as a metabolic disorder, the causes of the formation of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, risk factors associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus, and the components of marine biota possessing antidiabetic compounds are dealt with in this chapter
Diabetes Mellitus (DM) has been reported to be one of the top 10 causes of human death globally. 4.2 million deaths were caused by it in 2019, and by 2045, the number is believed to rise to more than 700 million cases [1]. The incidence of diabetes increases most rapidly in low- and middle-income countries due to changes in lifestyle and an aging population. DM is nothing but a metabolic disorder in which the body cells are unable to use glucose effectively. This situation arises due to either low insulin (Type 1 diabetes) or insulin insensitivity (Type 2 diabetes). Among these two types of DM, the incidence of T2DM is becoming more common and accounts for about 90% of all the cases of diabetes [2]. This diabetic condition is characterized by a fasting blood glucose level higher than 126 mg/dL. DM is also known to cause complications like cardiovascular complications, ulcerations, dyslipidemia, endoplasmic reticulum stress, neuropathy, nephropathy, and retinopathy in affected persons. The management practices of diabetes include boosting of insulin sensitivity, reduction of alpha-glucosidase activity,etc.
Several factors contribute to the formation of both type 1 and type 2 DM and are given below in Table1.
Several differences have been reported between type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes in the causes, onset of symptoms, and treatment. Type 1 diabetes is not caused by diet and lifestyle habits; it is an autoimmune condition that develops suddenly and is caused by genetics or other unknown factors. On the other hand, type 2 diabetes is often found to develop over time and is due to the lack of adequate exercise and obesity, which are the biggest risk factors. The causes of type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes are given below [4]:
Several factors have been reported to be responsible for the development of diabetes mellitus (Fig.1). Among them, the modifiable risk factors such as physical inactivity, overweight/obesity, poor dietary habits, hypertension, smoking, and certain medications (e.g. glucocorticoids) and non-modifiable risk factors like genetics, family history, race/ethnicity, increasing age (>45), and history of gestational diabetes are important ones [5].
The marine ecosystems are considered to be the vast and relatively unexploited sources of bioactive compounds with high chemical diversity. Such metabolites include sulfated polysaccharides, proteins, polyphenols, sterols, fatty acids, tannins, flavonoids, pigments,etc. These compounds have been reported to possess remarkable pharmacological activities.
Exclusive metabolites have remarkable pharmacological activities like anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antihyperlipidemic, antidiabetic, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antihypertensive, anticoagulant, immunomodulatory, neuroprotective,etc.
Among the different components of marine biota, sponges, corals, bacteria, fungi, mollusks, ascidians, brown algae, red algae, and green algae have been reported to possess antidiabetic agents [3].
Because of the limited number of anti-diabetic drugs and the increase in the number of diabetic patients, the search for new antidiabetic compounds, especially from marine sources, has attracted much interest from the global scientific community. Although several anticancer, antiviral, and chronic pain-reducing drugs have been derived from marine living resources, sufficient attention has not been paid to the development of antidiabetic drugs from these resources. It is worth mentioning that a terpene compound,viz. dysidine, isolated from the sponge Dysidea villosa has entered preclinical trials for the treatment of diabetes (Lauritano and Ianora, 2016). However, there is great scope in the future for the development...
