Bases ecològiques per a la recerca de nous fàrmacs en els organismes marins Authors Maria J. Uriz Abstract Natural beings contain an extraordinary diversity of bioactive molecules, which have been used as a source of medicines since the Antiquity. The majority of the available drugs in the market, are or derive from natural products. During the last 50 years, the research for the development of new drugs from natural substances has focused on the marine environment. Marine organisms have been comparatively less explored than terrestrial ones and are thought to produce unusual chemical structures because of the particular physical characteristics of marine waters. The interactions mediated by bioactive substances are widespread among marine beings, since they inhabit a low-visibility environment where the chemical cues become particularly relevant. Moreover, besides vegetables (algae), in the sea, there is an animal form of life that does not exist in the terrestrial environment. This form of life is represented by sessile invertebrates (attached to the sea bottom as adults), which are particularly prone to develop a set of mechanisms to avoid being covered by other fast-growing organisms (epibionts) or predated by mobile animals. Among these mechanisms, the production of defensive chemicals is preponderant, and these chemicals have been found applications in the pharmacological industry. In this study, I describe the way the investigation on new drugs of marine origin has developed in parallel to that on natural products and on chemical ecology and how this research field is a model in which basic and applied sciences go close together. Furthermore, I review the state of the art of the research in these fields and outline the current research topics and their foreseeable evolution in the forthcoming years. Downloads Download data is not yet available. Downloads Text complet (Català) Published 2009-02-16 Issue 58, 2007 : Les biotecnologies / Pere Puigdomènech i Francesc Gòdia, editors Section Les aplicacions: salut, alimentació, indústria i medi ambient License The intellectual property of the articles belongs to the respective authors. At the time of submitting the articles to Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Biologia, authors accept the following terms: — Authors assign to the SCB (a subsidiary of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans) the rights of reproduction, public communication (including communication through social networks) and distribution of the articles submitted for publication to Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Biologia, in any form and medium, including digital platforms. The Publications Committee reserves the right to accept or refuse submitted articles and the right to make any editorial changes it deems appropriate. If the suggested changes are accepted by authors, they should re-submit the article with such changes. — Authors answer to the SCB for the authorship and originality of submitted articles. In other words, authors assure that submitted articles do not contain fragments of works by other authors or fragments of their own previously published works; that the content of articles is original, and that the copyright of third parties is not infringed upon. Authors accept this responsibility and undertake to hold harmless the SCB for any loss or damage resulting from non-compliance with this obligation. Furthermore, they should include a statement in articles submitted to the journal regarding their responsibility for the content of the articles. — Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for the reproduction of all graphic material included in articles, and they should moreover ensure that images, videos, etc., have been created with the consent of the individuals appearing in them, and that material belonging to third parties is clearly identified and acknowledged as such within the text. Likewise, authors should provide the respective consents and authorisations to the SCB when submitting articles. — The SCB is exempt from any liability arising from the possible infringement of intellectual property rights by authors. In all cases, it undertakes to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies, if necessary. — Unless otherwise stated in the text or in the graphic material, the contents published in the journal are subject to an Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivs 3.0 Spain (by-nc-nd) license from Creative Commons, the full text of which may be consulted at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/deed.en. Therefore, the general public is authorised to reproduce, distribute and communicate articles as long as their authorship and publishing entity are acknowledged, and no commercial use is made of them nor derivative work produced from them. — The journal is not responsible for the ideas and opinions expressed by the authors of published articles.
