Medicine from the Sea

 

By Kevin Krajick /

Originally appeared in Smithsonian,

May 2004. Reprinted by permission.

 

From slime to sponges, scientists are plumbing the ocean’s depths in search of new medications to treat cancer, pain and other ailments

 

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Sea slime, it turns out, is unusually adept at producing useful biochemicals. Over the past 30 years, researchers have extracted at least 20,000 new biochemical substances from marine plants and creatures. These compounds are tested as treatments for ailments such as chronic pain, asthma and various malignancies, including cancer. Dozens have reached clinical trials; a handful may soon be reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for possible approval.

 

Looking on land

 

Botanists and chemists have long prospected in tropical forests and other terrestrial ecosystems for unusual substances to meet human needs. More than 100 important drugs originate either as direct extracts or synthetic redesigns of plant molecules, including aspirin (from willow bark), the heart-stimulant drug digitalis (from the flowering herb foxglove), morphine (from opium poppies), and the antimalarial drug quinine (from the bark of the cinchona tree).

 

Looking in the sea

 

The work done over the years in medicinal botany has spurred marine bioprospecting. The world’s oceans, which may contain as many as 2 million undiscovered species, have remained largely untapped. Native plants and animals in difficult-to-reach locations, such as deep-sea hot vents and seabed sediments, have hardly been documented. Yet the sea’s potential as a biochemical resource is becoming ever more apparent.

 

“Because we humans live on land, that’s where we’ve always looked,” says organic chemist William Fenical, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California. “But if you were to ask ... ‘Where should we explore?’ the answer would always be the sea. Now we’re there.”

 

The first marine drugs

 

Two antiviral drugs already on the market were inspired by marine product chemistry: Acyclovir, which treats herpes infections, and AZT, which fights the AIDS virus, HIV. Those drugs can be traced to chemical compounds that chemist Werner Bergmann isolated from a Caribbean sponge in the 1950s.

Vocabulary Focus

extract (v) [iks5trAkt] to remove or take out something

malignancy (n) [mE5li^nEnsi] a disease or a diseased growth that is likely to become uncontrollably worse and lead to death

antiviral (adj) [5Anti5vaiErEl] relating to a drug or treatment used to cure an infection or disease caused by a virus

 

Specialized Terms

biochemical (n) 生物化学物质 a chemical substance produced by living things

clinical trial (n) 临床实验 a carefully managed test of a new drug or medical device on human subjects

prospect (v) 勘探；勘察 to search for valuable substances on or under the surface of the earth

terrestrial (adj) 陆地的 on the land rather than in the sea or air

organic chemist (n) 有机化学家 a scientist who studies chemical substances that contain carbon, especially those produced by living organisms

herpes (n) 疱疹 an infectious disease that causes painful red spots to appear on the skin, especially on the lips or sexual organs

来自海洋的医病良药

张梵 译

 

从粘稠物到海绵，科学家正在探索海洋深处，寻找治疗癌症、疼痛及其他疾病的药物

 

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海底粘稠物质正被证实用于产出有益的生物制剂（过去30年来研究人员已从海洋植物及生物中，萃取出至少2万种新的生物化学物质，并针对这些化合物进行试验，以寻求慢性疼痛、哮喘及包括癌症等各种恶性疾病的治疗药物。几十种化合物已进入临床实验阶段，美国食品药物管理局也可能不久后开始审查其中一些化合物，并可能正式批准其使用。

 

在陆地上寻找   

长久以来，植物学家及化学家一直在勘探热带森林及其它各种陆上生态系统，以寻找稀有物质来满足人类需求。逾100种重要药物系从植物分子直接萃取或重新合成设计而来，包括阿司匹林（来自柳树皮）、强心药物毛地黄制剂（来自开花植物毛地黄）、吗啡（来自罂粟花）及抗疟疾药物奎宁（来自金鸡纳树皮）。

 

在深海里探索   

药用植物学历年的研究工作，带动了海洋生物勘探。全球各海域可能约有多达200万个物种尚未被发现，大部分的海域也尚未被探索利用。有些海洋原生动植物生长于深海热液喷口或海床沉积物等难以接近的地带，也几乎不被纳入文献记载。纵然如此，海洋成为生物化学资源的潜力，已日益明显。   

威廉·费尼卡是美国加州史格斯海洋学协会的有机化学家。他说：“由于人类居住在陆地上，我们过去一直在陆地上探索寻找。但你若问‘我们应该探索何处？’答案一定是海洋。我们现在已经深入海洋了。”

 

首批来自海洋的药品   

市面上两种抗病毒药品最初制造的灵感即来自海洋产物化学：“阿昔洛韦”可治疗疱疹感染，而AZT则可抑制艾滋病病毒 HIV。这些药物可追溯至沃纳·柏格曼于20世纪50年代从加勒比海海绵分离出的一些化合物。