CELL LOCALIZATION OF PHARM BIOACTIVE METABOLITES IN MARINE SPONGES & ASCIDIANS

海洋海绵和海鞘已被证明是一个巨大的来源， 生物活性次级代谢产物。 需要新 治疗疾病的药物继续鼓励研究 用于分离和表征新的天然产物。 我们 有兴趣确定精确的细胞定位， 这些化合物，以了解基本的细胞过程， 代谢途径、生物学和生态学功能。 的作用 次级代谢产物中的微生物和藻类共生体 还将研究生产。 这类化合物被称为 吡啶并吖啶已经成为许多生物医学和化学领域的主题， 由于它们高生物活性、令人感兴趣的杂环 构造和穿叶分布。 我们发现 这些化合物中的一些经历特征颜色变化， 可见光和荧光发射中pH值的变化。 我们 我建议在使用激光扫描时将该特征用作标记 共聚焦显微镜研究细胞定位 海绵和海鞘组织中的吡啶并吖啶。 各种海绵和 化学成分已经确定的海鞘样品， 使用共聚焦显微镜检查，以确定 利用这种方法作为研究细胞定位的手段， 它们的次级代谢产物。 一旦找到一个好的候选人， 差异染色方法的发展，以调查 化合物在特定细胞内的定位。 的结果予以 研究将指导未来的样本收集和保存 共聚焦显微镜继续研究的程序 海洋天然产物化学方法。 的结果 研究也将影响测试方法的发展。 局部次生植被的生物生态功能 海洋无脊椎动物的代谢物。 该项目靠近 完成，正在准备手稿。

Marine sponges and ascidians have proven to be a vast source of pharmacologically bioactive secondary metabolites. The need for new drugs for the treatment of diseases continutes to encourage research forthe isolation and characterization of novel natural products. We are interested in determining the precise cellular localization of these compounds to understand the basic cellular processes of metabolic pathways, biological, and ecological function. The role of associated microbial and algal symbionts in secondary metabolite production will also be studied. The class of compounds known as the pyridoacridines has been the subject of much biomedical and chemical interest due to their high bioactivity, interesting heterocyclic structures, and transphylogenic distributrion. We have found that some of these compounds undergo a characteristic color change with a change in pH in both visible light and fluorescence emmision. We propose to utilize this feature as a marker while using laser scanning confocal microscopy to study the cellular localization of pyridoacridines in sponge and ascidian tissues. Various sponge and ascidian samples whose chemistry has been previously determined were examined using confocal microscopy to determine the feasibility of utilizing this method as a means of studying the cellular localization of their secondary metabolites. Once a good candidate was found, differential staining methods were developed to investigate the localization of compounds within specific cells. The results of these studies will direct future sample collection and preservation procedures for continued research involving confocal microscopy methods in marine natural products chemistry. The results of this research will aso influence the development of methods to test the biological and ecological functions of the localized secondary metabolites from marine invertebrates. This project is near to completion and a manuscript is in preparation.