Therapeutically perspective components from common marine invertebrates.

Infections and tumors are principal causes of human mortality approving the demand for new antimicrobial and anticancer agents. Antimicrobial peptides and alkaloids are two groups accepted as promising candidates for elaboration of novel therapeutics. Marine invertebrates are still scarcely employed as a source of therapeutically applicable components, despite their great diversity and relative abundance, which implies presence of effective mechanisms for control of such key biological processes as cell division and differentiation, cell death or survival. We tested several periwinkle species of genus Littorina (Mollusca, Gastropoda), common starfish Asterias rubens (Echinodermata, Asteroidea) and subtidal moss animal Chartella membranaceatruncata (Bryozoa, Cheilostomata) for the presence of therapeutically relevant activities in their tissues, such as antibacterial, fungicidal and anticancer ones. We got samples for an antimicrobial assay against laboratory lineages of gram-positive (Enterococcus faecalis A