Through the improved biological screening mothods,the role of natural products in drug discovery has been greatly enhanced
in the last few years. This is particularly true for marine natural products,which show an interesting array of diverse and novel chemical structures with strong biological activities and unique mechanisms. Research into the pharmacological properties of marine natural products has led to the discovery of many potently active agents to be considered worthy for clinical application or pre-clinical research. Sponges are aquatic animals that occur in all oceans and have a wide distribution from tropical to temperate to arctic regions.They occasionally develop symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship with both algae and bacteria and may contain many complex chemicals that have medicinal value. Because of their prevalence,ease of collection,and ability to biosynthesize a variety of natural product structural classes,sponges have become one of the dominant sources of biologycally active marine natural products. This paper reviews the progress in the chemistry and bioactivities of the secondary
metabolites from sponges. On this basis,a perspective on the
pharmaceutical potential of the bioactive compounds from the title animal is made.