Natural Product Drugs From Marine Soft-Bodied Fauna

We will systematically explore the marine, soft-bodied, benthic infauna of the northeastern Pacific Ocean for anti-tumor and other biological activities. The following invertebrate groups will be collected: polychaetes, nemerteans, sipunculans and enteropneusts. Phase I will concentrate on collecting 10% of a program total of 200-250 species and on evaluating innovative collecting methods. Our research will include vacuum extraction of sediments and selective organic enrichment of the sediment to promote recruitment and increased abundance of target species. Samples will be extracted and screened against a panel of five human tumor cell lines. Active extracts will be further fractionated according to biological activity and described chemically. Phase II will continue this work, and the NCI will be given the opportunity to screen the collection. It is expected that new chemical entities, with important pharmaceutical activities, will be described and patented; they will be licensed to the government or pharmaceutical companies for development. The evaluation of benthic marine infauna presents a new opportunity for drug discovery. Only a few infaunal species have been evaluated due to the perceived technical difficulty of collecting and recollecting infauna in kilogram quantities.