Marine-Derived bioactives as precision modulators of molecular targets: Emerging paradigms in therapeutic design

Oceanic environments represent a unique source of biologically active substances, which has a large spectrum of chemical composition, and has significant therapeutic potential. Marine-derived bioactive compounds have emerged as accuracy regulators of molecular signals and offer new options to modern therapeutics design. Unlike normal small molecules, these compounds are often highly specific in terms of interaction with challenging targets, including proteases, chaperones, protein-protein interaction crossroads, transcription factors, and epigenetic regulators. It is becoming clear that they have the ability to shape disease specific gene expression and cellular phenotypes through chromatin architecture, altering complex signaling networks, and immunological checkpoints. Such system level regulation is particularly relevant in multifactorial diseases including neurological diseases, cancer, and chronic inflammatory states. The advances in structural biology, computational drug design and the omics technologies have minimized reliance on direct marine harvesting and accelerated the discovery and optimization of marine biological agents. Moreover, the concept of marine-inspired scaffolds is integrated into the framework of precision medicine more often, making it possible to develop a personalized therapeutical strategy that is less risky and more efficient. This review highlights recent mechanistic findings, targets, and translational advancements of marine-derived bioactives with a focus on the importance of these advancements in the development of next-generation therapeutics based on their revolutionary nature.