2. Academic Validation
  3. Marine natural products with anti-MRSA activities: promising candidates for antibacterial drug discovery

Marine natural products with anti-MRSA activities: promising candidates for antibacterial drug discovery

  • Bioorg Chem. 2025 Dec:167:109242. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2025.109242.
Mei-Jun Chu 1,  Qian-Qian Wu 1,  Bao-Tao Liu 1,  You-Zhi Li 2,  Ming Zou 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 College of Veterinary Medicine, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China.
  • 2 Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quality Safety Monitoring for Animal Products and Veterinary Drug Innovation, Shandong Center for Quality Control of Feed and Veterinary Drug, Jinan 250100, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 3 College of Veterinary Medicine, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 41253063 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2025.109242
Abstract

The increasing prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a global health concern, necessitating the development of new Antibacterial drug. Marine natural products (MNPs) with unique structures and significant activities are underexploited sources for the discovery of new Antibacterial lead compounds. However, the systematic review focusing on MNPs with anti-MRSA activity is still scarce. This review firstly summarized the anti-MRSA MNPs, including their geographical origin, chemical structures and biological activities, reported from 2014 to July 2025. For a better understanding, these 269 MNPs mainly including polyketides and Alkaloids are classified and presented according to their biological origins (marine Microorganisms, Animals and Plants). The preliminary structure-activity relationship and the mechanisms of action of some promising MNPs are also discussed. We found that marine Microorganisms of the genera Streptomyces, Penicillium and Aspergillus and the animal sponges were the predominant producers of anti-MRSA MNPs. Strikingly, 80 compounds exhibited more potent anti-MRSA activity than that of the positive control or comparable to that of the positive control. This review highlights the huge potential of MNPs as scaffolds for developing next-generation Antibacterial agents to combat MRSA and will inspire the development of novel marine drugs.

Keywords

Anti-MRSA activities; Antibacterial; Lead compounds; Marine natural products; Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; Structures.

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