Pivot Role of Bioinformatics in Drug Discovery Using Marine Natural Products as Resources

Many attainments have occurred in the 20th Century, especially in modern pharmaceuticals. New drug therapies have extended human life span and improved the quality of life. In this regard, society has become more and more reliant upon the availability of safe and efficacious pharmaceutical products. Nature plays the main source of providing medicines that offer the source of new pharmaceuticals. Today, over 50% of marketed drugs are either extracted from natural sources or produced by synthesis using natural products as templates. Since ancient times, man used natural medicines generally as crude extracts from plants to treat infection, inflammation, pain and a variety of other maladies. Studies and Investigations held in these “natural” ethnobotanical preparations led to the isolation of compounds whose beneficial properties have provided the foundation of the current pharmaceutical industry. New diseases due to changing environment and many diseases without effective drugs decide on the drug manufacturers for new resources to develop effective and safe drugs for the increasing demands of the world population. Recently, the major focus is upon the marine environment for the reason that marine organisms possess bioactive substances required for the human race and also the ocean is a less explored source of environment. The processes of designing a drug using bioinformatics tools open a new area of research. Virtual screening of the target disease for compounds that bind and inhibit the protein aids in bioinformatics steps. This review offered the marine environment as an ensuring source for drug discovery, some successful drugs in use from marine products, several databases in use and the application of bioinformatics to deliver a successful drug.