Scanning the oceans

Scientists tap the seas to find new biomedicines.

Mass spectrometry is opening the oceans to potential new medicines. Mass spectrometry is an imaging technique that can uniquely probe the inner workings of marine organisms.

Marine biologists and chemists from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) are seeking ways to identify processes that produce the compounds within sponges, molluscs and other marine invertebrates.

In a study outlined in the journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and Molecular Biosystems, the scientists describe success in using new technology called natural product (np) MALDI-TOF (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight) imaging mass spectrometry.

When studying marine sponges, the researchers had to isolate whether the therapeutic compounds were produced by the sponge, bacteria within it or a combination of both. An author of the paper, William Gerwick of the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences said: “Sea hares, for example, eat cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and we know for a fact that they assimilate their chemistry.

“With sponges, there are communities of organisms living within them. What we need to find out is: within those communities, who really possesses the genes to make the critical compounds?”

Peering into algae and sponges

The team used npMALDI-I to uniquely peer into algae and sponges, narrowing the locations where beneficial molecules are being created. They created a ‘map’ across algae and sponge tissue samples. The team then pinpointed clusters of known and unknown molecules from marine cyanobacteria and within a cross-section of a sponge, some of which have promising therapeutic properties.

Their findings suggest that “the microorganisms are responsible for the production of at least some of the compounds,” explained Pieter Dorrestein of the UCSD Skaggs School. “An analytical approach such as this may become useful in the discovery of the organisms that are responsible for the production of natural products that can be used to treat diseases.”

“Ultimately, we need to know who holds the genes that produce the promising compounds,” said Gerwick. “That’s a fundamental question with lots of implications. It’s been very difficult to answer, but now we are showing that mass spectrometry offers some new ways to interrogate these kinds of issues.”

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