5 / 11
A n n u a l C o n g r e s s o n
Medicinal Chemistry,
Pharmacology and toxicology
Journal of Organic & Inorganic Chemistry
ISSN: 2472-1123
J u l y 3 0 - 3 1 , 2 0 1 8
Am s t e r d a m , N e t h e r l a n d s
Medchem & Toxicology 2018
Page 21
N
atural products have played a significant role in the drug discovery process
throughout the last hundreds years. What is the best strategy to investigate
the biological potentialities of secondary metabolites? It is generally accepted
that there are two ways to explore the pharmaceutical potentialities of natural
products. The first way is so called bioassay guided isolation of bioactive natural
products; the second one is so called random screening methodology. In fact,
every procedure could be only partially satisfactory. Apart the above mentioned
two solutions, an alternative way could be a good choice through studying the
compounds that really play a biological role in the organism where they are
present. This could be the starting point to discover other biological potentialities.
Of course, to performstudies like these one needs a careful selection of promising
biological systems and, also, the close collaboration among chemists, biologists
and pharmacologists. Trying to follow this bio-chemical approach some years
ago we started to investigate marine nudibranchs that are extremely interesting
from an ecological point of view. In fact, these molluscs are completely devoid of
the mechanical protection of the shell. But, in spite of this apparent vulnerability,
they are rarely victims of predators. This is due to a series of defensive strategies
that include the use of chemicals that either derive from their food habits or are
biosynthesized de
novo
by themselves. In this lecture we will report the recent
chemical studies on opisthobranch molluscs collected from South China Sea.
All work has been performed in close collaboration with marine biologists who
have correctly submitted the biological problems to the chemical analysis, and
with pharmacologists who have carried out bioassay based on the clue provided
through chemoecology studies.
Biography
He received his Ph.D. degree in Natural Product Chemistry
in 1997 from Institute of Chemistry of Bio-molecule-CNR &
Naples University of Italy. From 1997 to 1999, He spent two
postdoctoral years at the Institute of Chemistry of Bio-molecule-
CNR in Naples, with Prof. Guido Cimino, working in the field of
Marine Natural Products. From 1999 to 2000 he was a TBRS
postdoctoral fellow in Hokkaido University, Japan, working with
Prof. Jun’ichi Kobayashi. In year 2000, he moved, as a Professor
of Chemistry, to the Shanghai Institute of Material Medica,
Chinese Academy of Sciences. In these years hismain research
interests have been in the field of the chemistry of natural
products from marine organisms, such as algae, mangrove,
porifera, gorgonians, molluscs, in particular focused to the
isolation, purification, and structural elucidation of chemical
mediators and to biological studies. The more recent interests
are directed to the chemical ecology of unprotected marine
molluscs from South China Sea and Chinese mangrove plants.
ywguo@simm.ac.cnChemoecology guided discovery of drug leads
from South China Sea marine invertebrates
Yue-Wei Guo
Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academ
of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Yue-Wei Guo, J Org Inorg Chem 2018, Volume 4
DOI: 10.21767/2472-1123-C3-007