Marine Drugs (Oct 2019)

Naturally Drug-Loaded Chitin: Isolation and Applications

  • Valentine Kovalchuk,
  • Alona Voronkina,
  • Björn Binnewerg,
  • Mario Schubert,
  • Liubov Muzychka,
  • Marcin Wysokowski,
  • Mikhail V. Tsurkan,
  • Nicole Bechmann,
  • Iaroslav Petrenko,
  • Andriy Fursov,
  • Rajko Martinovic,
  • Viatcheslav N. Ivanenko,
  • Jane Fromont,
  • Oleg B. Smolii,
  • Yvonne Joseph,
  • Marco Giovine,
  • Dirk Erpenbeck,
  • Michael Gelinsky,
  • Armin Springer,
  • Kaomei Guan,
  • Stefan R. Bornstein,
  • Hermann Ehrlich

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/md17100574
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 10
p. 574

Abstract

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Naturally occurring three-dimensional (3D) biopolymer-based matrices that can be used in different biomedical applications are sustainable alternatives to various artificial 3D materials. For this purpose, chitin-based structures from marine sponges are very promising substitutes. Marine sponges from the order Verongiida (class Demospongiae) are typical examples of demosponges with well-developed chitinous skeletons. In particular, species belonging to the family Ianthellidae possess chitinous, flat, fan-like fibrous skeletons with a unique, microporous 3D architecture that makes them particularly interesting for applications. In this work, we focus our attention on the demosponge Ianthella flabelliformis (Linnaeus, 1759) for simultaneous extraction of both naturally occurring (“ready-to-use”) chitin scaffolds, and biologically active bromotyrosines which are recognized as potential antibiotic, antitumor, and marine antifouling substances. We show that selected bromotyrosines are located within pigmental cells which, however, are localized within chitinous skeletal fibers of I. flabelliformis. A two-step reaction provides two products: treatment with methanol extracts the bromotyrosine compounds bastadin 25 and araplysillin-I N20 sulfamate, and a subsequent treatment with acetic acid and sodium hydroxide exposes the 3D chitinous scaffold. This scaffold is a mesh-like structure, which retains its capillary network, and its use as a potential drug delivery biomaterial was examined for the first time. The results demonstrate that sponge-derived chitin scaffolds, impregnated with decamethoxine, effectively inhibit growth of the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus in an agar diffusion assay.

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