Ocean Medicines: PolicyMic looks at deep sea potential

For many, the oceans are both a source of nourishment and a waste disposal site. But they can also be a source of important new medicines. Unfortunately, our desire to fill our stomachs with the ocean's bounty or empty our trash is also threatening its possibilities as a new-found pharmacy.

In June, I wrote about the ocean's medicinal potential and Jonathan Booth, writing for PolicyMic.com, has written an excellent piece on the deep ocean as a source of new medicines. Rather than paraphrase, here is his piece in its entirety:

Oceanic Discoveries With Medicinal Powers

When we think of obtaining medicines from natural sources, we usually conjure up scenes of trekking through vast swathes of dense tropical forest in search of rare ferns, vines, palms, and other plant life. However, there is now a growing interest in the lesser known organisms that inhabit the oceanic abyss and the medicinal and genetic properties they may contain. An organisation that has taken significant steps to examine deep sea animals is CIOERT, which recently conducted deep sea expeditions in search of invertebrates to help alleviate an array of ailments, including cancer. Likewise, researchers in Australia have discovered derivatives from some sea cucumber species that can work as an anti-inflammatory, and some coral compounds may be used to help with bone grafting or the treatment of tumours. Accordingly, swift actions need to be taken to fund and promote the exploration, research, and protection of the oceans – some of the least explored habitats, which often escape environmental and ecological policy.

Over three-quarters of our planet is submerged under seawater, and with the Pacific Ocean’s deepest point extending over 10,000 metres below sea level, the oceans form undoubtedly the largest habitable and least explored environment on earth. Yet, unlike terrestrial regions, the absence of breathable oxygen, diminishing light levels, and immensely pressurised depths make the seas an almost inaccessible domain for humans. Due to these conditions, marine systems also function differently to land-based habitats. The land relies on plants to capture the sun’s light and combine it with water and CO2 to synthesise sugars; this provides the crux of all land food-webs. In the sunlit upper layers of the sea, conversely, green plants are substituted for single-celled phytoplankton, and terrestrial insects and herbivorous mammals are replaced with zooplankton (a drifting soup of eggs, sperm, and microscopic animals).

The deep ocean is devoid of light so no plants can live in this region; instead, abyssal organisms have to rely on organic detritus that drifts from above, or mineral-laden volcanic plumes that belch from the inner earth. In this unfamiliar realm, it is not surprising that marine scientists are making seemingly countless discoveries about new animals and even new ecosystems.

The sea floor is dominated by the weird and wonderful world of invertebrates. From the colorful architectures of sponges and corals, to mechanical crustaceans and a bewildering array of worms, starfish, sea cucumbers, and sea squirts it is difficult not to be amazed by some of these curious creatures. However, such life forms are not only visually stimulating: In the eyes of the medical profession, their physiologies can be lifesaving too, which reiterates the need to research and preserve oceanic organisms and their environments.

An animal that has been a favorite lab companion for many pharmaceutical industries is the horseshoe crab. With a large, flattened, dome-shaped carapace that masks almost all signs of the segmented limbs that emerge from beneath, and a long, tail-spike that juts out from the rear, this animal almost defies belief. Yet apart from its science fiction-like form, these extraordinary creatures have also caught the attention of the medical profession, who have been collecting specimens over the past few decades to assist scientists with medical trials. This is due to the presence of copper-based haemocyanin in the animal’s blue blood (unlike the red-pigmented ferrous haemoglobin found in mammals); this blood contains amebocytes – white-blood cell substitutes – that can help identify the presence of bacteria in medicinal solutions. Marine discoveries like these have helped to further medical progression, which in the case of the horseshoe crab includes the development of wound dressings, optical research, and the guarantee that all your injections are free from bacterial contaminants.

Recent discoveries concerning the physiological and genetic characteristics of this cast of organisms are advancing the understanding of medicine, which could be significant for society. In order to further this knowledge, we need to expand deep sea exploration projects and associated research. Since the 1970s, submersibles have discovered not only new fauna, but also entire ecosystems that function without any source of sunlight. However, there is also a need to conserve and protect the oceans. Currently, national marine parks and marine protected areas help to conserve certain coastal regions, such as coral reefs; yet the open oceans and abyss have been largely neglected. Pollution, oceanic waste-sites, overfishing, and other marine exploitations have had adverse repercussions on our marine systems; such impacts could be furthered by the escalating threats of projected anthropogenic climate changes. It is apparent, therefore, that appropriate measures need to be taken to not only research the deep and its inhabitants, but also to conserve it. Otherwise, we may be destroying a ready stocked medicine chest that has yet to be delved into – and a beautifully adorned one at that.

Read more at PolicyMic.com.

Marine-Based Medicines: making ocean conservation personal

One of the ways that ocean conservation can resonate with a broad population of people is to, for better or worse, make it self-serving. In other words, show a direct link between the ocean and mankind. Those involved in ocean conservation know that there is a shopping list as long as your arm of benefits derived from conserving our marine resources, but many are the result of an inter-related domino effect and sometimes those multiple degrees of separation can, for many people, seem obscure, thereby diluting the urgency of the cause. It becomes a bit more remote when it is a series of "if this happens, then this happens..."

So let's bring it home: Alzheimer's, AIDS, coronary artery disease, arthritis, diabetes, obesity.

These are just a few of the health conditions that scientists are turning to the oceans for treatment in the form of pharmaceuticals (medicinal drugs), nutraceuticals (vitamins and food supplements), and functional foods. Pharmacologists are studying many of the organic compounds found in the sea and discovering direct benefits to mankind in the form of preventative treatments or treatments of active conditions.

One such subject of study is algae in its many forms - from seaweed to red tides. Seaweeds have various levels of antioxidants which can be isolated and used as food supplements or as part of medical treatments for several conditions including coronary heart disease and cancer. Antioxidants serve to protect cells from other elements that would damage or destroy them.

Algal blooms, like "red tides", can kill fish through neurotoxins, but it's those same toxins that can be used to develop anti-inflammatory or anti-neurodegenerative compounds. Much like how medicines have been developed from unlikely sources like spider or snake venom, there are strides being made with algal-based neurological agents to develop treatments for HIV (particularly in response to drug resistance to some of the current drug therapies), arthritis, Parkinson's disease and many other conditions where prevention or treatment of nerve cells would be beneficial.

In many cases, marine-based compounds are beneficial when incorporated or synthesized with other molecules or chemicals, constructing new molecules that can be used to control cancer or serum cholesterol and other conditions.

According to a study, "The Odyssey of Marine Pharmaceuticals: A Current Pipeline Perspective," published in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, "The global marine pharmaceutical pipeline consists of three Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs, one EU registered drug, 13 natural products (or derivatives thereof) in different phases of the clinical pipeline and a large number of marine chemicals in the preclinical pipeline. The preclinical pipeline continues to supply several hundred novel marine compounds every year and those continue to feed the clinical pipeline with potentially valuable compounds. From a global perspective the marine pharmaceutical pipeline remains very active, and now has sufficient momentum to deliver several additional compounds to the marketplace in the near future."

So, in a very direct way, the ocean saves lives. A healthy ocean means healthy humans. Ocean advocates know this to be true on a variety of levels, through a myriad of inter-related ecological systems or processes. But knowing that a healthy ocean could provide the treatment to perhaps save the life of a loved one from a debilitating or deadly disease - that can grab the attention of the uncommitted in a heartbeat.

Read more about algae's neuroprotective abilities.
Read more about potential marine-based anti-HIV agents.

Plants At Risk: research catalogs potential extinction threat to one-fifth of all plants

There are several news agencies that are picking up on a recently released study that declares that one-fifth of the world's plants are faced with extinction. Animals or large-scale ecosystems seem to catch the attention of the general public more than plants, perhaps because we can relate to an animated polar bear, a wolf, or a shark better than we can to an orchid. And ecosystems catch our attention because their fate is often wrapped up in global implications.

However, plants, as much as they may be taken for granted or ignored altogether, play a significant role in not only the overall health of the planet but to mankind specifically.

Researchers at England's Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, and the Natural History Museum, along with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have analyzed over 4,000 plant species and determined that 22% should be considered threatened with possible extinction, while another 33% could not have their status determined because so little is known about them. Their research forms an important baseline by which future growth or loss can be measured.

With an estimated 380,000 plant species in the world today, what appears to be the greatest threat is habitat loss - areas of land that are being consumed and redirected towards agriculture. Tropical rain forests seem to be the greatest botanical areas at risk.

Now what might assume that the loss of some obscure orchid or weed is not a big deal; that as long as we have plenty of fruits and vegetables, we will be okay. Not so, according to the research. Many medicines have been first derived or can only be derived from plant extracts, and with the loss of botanical environments that can be a loss of an untold number of future medications. Ironically, developing countries, where much of the tropical forests and plant systems are being wiped out, are one of the main benefactors in plant-derived medicines for conditions ranging from malaria to leukemia.

In addition, focusing on plants that serve the greatest numbers of people as food is a limitation that can have profound effects on the very plants we depend on. It is reported that 80% of the calories consumed by the world come from only 12 different plant species. That can cause a precarious limitation in the DNA gene pool of plants which can have a negative impact on those 12 species we so much depend on. Imagine ridding the world of all animals except for cows, pigs, chickens and a few fish and you can see how precarious our situation would become in maintaining a healthy gene pool of feed animals.

The report on the ongoing botanical research comes in advance of next month's United Nations Biodiversity Conference. The future of plants on earth must be an important component of a more holistic approach towards biodiversity, realizing that every plant or animal plays a role and we must consider the implications when any species, plant or animal, is brought to the level of extinction.

Stephen Hopper, professor and director of the the Royal Botanical Gardens said, "We cannot sit back and watch plant species disappear - plants are the basis of all life on Earth, providing clean air, water, food and fuel. All animal and bird life depends on them and so do we. Every breath we take involves interacting with plants. They're what we all depend on."

Read more about it in the Royal Botanical Gardens' KEW News.