Estudio de los efectos biológicos de biomoléculas de origen marino sobre cultivos de células humanas y modelos animales de enfermedades human

Abstract

The dissertation entitled “Biological effects of marine compounds on human cells and animal models of human diseases” deals with the in depth study of the biological effects of several guanidine alkaloids originally isolated from the marine sponge Crambe crambe known as crambescins and crambescidins. Crambescidins constitute a large family of secondary metabolites with an interesting antitumoral activity against several types of human tumors. Herein we characterize the underlying cellular mechanisms and the involved signaling networks. Furthermore, the present work describes their activities on cell-cell adhesion, cell-matrix adhesion and cell cytoskeleton, also confirming their efficacy and capacity to impair the growth and to induce tumor regression in vivo. The biological effects of several crambescins analogs have been assayed and the results of the studies carried out towards that objective are also presented in this dissertation, demonstrating their cytoprotective effect against oxidative injury through metallothionein induction. These results support the pharmacological utility of marine natural molecules and their value as lead compounds for the synthesis and optimization of new chemical structures.