Marine sponge derived actinomycetes and their anticancer compounds

Abstract

Chemotherapy is one of the main treatments used to combat cancer. A great number of anticancer agents are natural products or their derivatives, mainly produced by microorganisms and the actinomycetes are prolific producers of pharmacologically important compounds, accounting for about 70% of the naturally derived antibiotics that are currently in clinical use. In addition, actinomycetes yield a large number of natural substances with different biological activities, including anticancer activity. In this context, marine sponge derived actinomycetes have attracted special attention in the recent past for their ability to produce novel pharmacological lead compounds.