Global resistance to antibiotics is at the forefront of discussion in many forums, as we try to figure out the best ways to attack it with new and unique active pharmaceutical ingredients (API’s). Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the first global report on antimicrobial resistance (http://www.who.int/drugresistance/en/), which encompasses data from 114 countries.  The results may be well beyond scary.

The report suggests that we are already living in a ‘post-antibiotic’ area, whereby many commonly used antibiotics are now therapeutically effective in less than 50% of cases. The simple fact is that, in the coming years, we will potentially see many infections having increasingly serious health implications because we simply do not have effective means to treat them. This may mean that urinary tract infections, gonorrhoea, and pneumonia may become potentially fatal infections in exactly the same way they did hundreds of years ago. Therefore the question remains… What to do and where to go for solutions to these issues?
The University of Aberdeen in Scotland may well be leading the field in searching for new and unique clinically effective entities. Leading a group of European researchers from the UK, Belgium, Norway, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Italy and Denmark Aberdeen researchers are taking to the oceans in search for the answers. The €9.5milliion EU funded, and cleverly titled “PharmaSea Project” (http://www.pharma-sea.eu/pharmasea.html) aims to facilitate the discovery of new marine bio-entities that have never previously been tapped into.

By trawling the depths of the oceanic floor and its deep trenches and collecting marine life forms, the research group hopes to discover new and unique drug candidates and other bacteria and material that may potentially be used for dietary supplements and cosmetics. The European-based research group will be partnered by teams in China, Chile, New Zealand, Costa Rica and South Africa in order to target distant oceanic trenches to facilitate harvesting material from extremely remote areas of the underwater world such as the Atacama Trench located in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The team, which has already embarked on its reseach, aims to dredge for mud and sediment samples, and potentially discover new marine life. The hope is that they can find bacteria and other organic materials that may provide new drug-like molecules especially within the antibiotic classification.

Marine drug discovery programs are well established in academic circles, and this isn’t the only group working towards harnessing the pharmacological properties of the seas. Ten years ago, the FDA approved a license for the drug Prialt (Ziconotide), manufactured by Elan Corp., which is derived from the toxin of a small oceanic Cone Snail (Conus magnus). The non-opioid, non-steroidal analgesic, used for severe and chronic pain relief, was the first marine derived drug to be licensed for clinical use by the FDA.

Although this was a major step forward in marine drug discovery, many of the drugs that we now use are traceable back to natural products—in fact over 60% of molecules that are approved as drug agents are derived from a natural source e.g.; aspirin (willow/birch), morphine (poppy), penicillin (fungus), and Paclitaxel (yew tree). More recently there have been developments of pharmacologically active molecules from the Indian Sea Hare (drug molecule dolastin, currently being investigated for therapeutic effect in various cancers) and the Bugula neritina sponge (being trialled in leukemia and Alzheimer’s disease) among others, which are showing great promise in their therapeutic value.

Such is the promise that is being observed in the wildlife of the sea, there are dedicated research marine drug discovery schools across the world. The Florida Atlantic University in Fort Pierce has the  Harbor Branch Oceanic Institute (http://www.fau.edu/hboi/mbbr/drugsfromthesea.php), which focuses on secondary metabolites produced by marine plants, invertebrates and micro-organisms and is seeking to create new treatments for cancer and infectious diseases. The University of Florida in Gainsville has a similar dedicated facility as does the University of Uppsala in Sweden.

Clearly the dedicated research scientists of the world have recognized the potential of the oceans to provide drug and therapeutic compound candidates. However, many obstacles prevent access to the huge chemical arsenal that could be hiding in the murky depths of the worlds’ seas. Where many scientists are investigating the relatively easily “catchable” marine animals of sponges, snails and other invertebrates, this latest European collaboration is extending the search to the deepest, darkest fathoms of the earths’ waters in hope of finding something different. The harsh environments and survival challenges that are faced by marine life in these extreme conditions may well result in the next ‘kick-butt’ blockbuster drug that will have the same impact that the discovery of penicillin did in 1928.

If the defense mechanisms used by aquatic organisms could be transferred and delivered as therapeutic agents, the impact on drug resistance could be immense. Indeed, it may be that a whole new world of bacteria zapping drugs could be derived from the new ‘PharmaSea’, not located down the block but very cleverly hidden away at the bottom of the deepest depths. It will be interesting to monitor the progress of the deep-sea drug farmers—and fingers crossed we will never have to face the post-antibiotic era that currently seems so close and unavoidable.