Insights about clinically approved and preclinically investigated marine natural products

Since the early research efforts focusing on bioactive marine substances such as spongouridine, from the marine sponge Cryptotethya crypta, marine natural products (MNPs) have arisen as a robust and sustainable supplier for bioactive drug leads. Marine natural products present definite, unprecedented structural diversifications and varieties of interesting biomedical potentialities with novel mechanisms of action. Until today, eight clinically approved marine natural products-based drugs by two worldwide medical organizations (including U.S. FDA, European Medicines Agency (EMEA)), have been developed for the treatment of different forms of carcinoma, pain, Alzheimer's disease and other current medical challenges. Recent clinical trial analysis disclosed that the current clinical pipeline contains more than twenty listed drug candidates in different clinical trials in phase III, II, or I. Herein, we present recent insights centered to clinically approved and preclinically investigated marine bioactive compounds, as well as sampling techniques, extraction & identification tools, classification of MNPs, some reported biological activities, and challenges faced during MNPs development.