A Perspective on Enzyme Inhibitors from Marine Organisms

Marine habitats are promising sources for the identification of novel organisms as well as natural products. Still, we lack detailed knowledge on most of the marine biosphere. In the last decade, a number of reports described the potential of identifying novel bioactive compounds or secondary metabolites from marine environments. This is, and will be, a promising source for candidate compounds in pharma research and chemical biology. In recent years, a number of novel techniques were introduced into the field, and it has become easier to actually prospect for natural products, such as enzyme inhibitors. These novel compounds then need to be characterized and evaluated in comparison to well-known representatives. A number of current research projects target the exploitation of marine organisms and thus the corresponding diversity of metabolites. These are often encountered as potential drugs or biological active compounds. Among these, the class of enzyme inhibitors is an important group of compounds. There is room for new discoveries, and some more recent discoveries are highlighted herein.