The manzamines as an example of the unique structural classes available for the discovery and optimization of...

Natural products have served humankind as drug leads for thousands of years. In the last century natural products have not only served as drugs but have inspired the generation of countless synthetic drugs and drug-leads around natural product pharmacophores. There are no disease targets for which natural products have played a more significant role than in the case of malaria and other parasitic diseases. In this review the significance of the manzamine class of marine alkaloids is presented as an example of the future utility of the oceans in the development of antiparasitics. The manzamines represent one of the few new structural classes identified in recent decades with potential for the control of malaria and tuberculosis. While considerable work remains to successfully optimize this class of drug-leads the novel pharmacophore and significant metabolic stability combined with a rapid onset of action and long half-life all strongly support further investigations of this group of potential drug candidates.