The chemical investigation of marine mollusks has led to the isolation of a wide variety of bioactive metabolites, which evolved in marine organisms as favorable adaptations to survive in different environments. Most of them are derived from food sources, but they can be also biosynthesized de novo by the mollusks themselves, or produced by symbionts. Consequently, the isolated compounds cannot be strictly considered as “chemotaxonomic markers” for the different molluscan species. However, the chemical investigation of this phylum has provided many compounds of interest as potential anticancer drugs that assume particular importance in the light of the growing literature on cancer biology and chemotherapy. The current review highlights the diversity of chemical structures, mechanisms of action, and, most importantly, the potential of mollusk‐derived metabolites as anticancer agents, including those biosynthesized by mollusks and those of dietary origin. After the discussion of dolastatins and kahalalides, compounds previously studied in clinical trials, the review covers potentially promising anticancer agents, which are grouped based on their structural type and include terpenes, steroids, peptides, polyketides and nitrogen‐containing compounds. The “promise” of a mollusk‐derived natural product as an anticancer agent is evaluated on the basis of its ability to target biological characteristics of cancer cells responsible for poor treatment outcomes. These characteristics include high antiproliferative potency against cancer cells in vitro, preferential inhibition of the proliferation of cancer cells over normal ones, mechanism of action via nonapoptotic signaling pathways, circumvention of multidrug resistance phenotype, and high activity in vivo, among others. The review also includes sections on the targeted delivery of mollusk‐derived anticancer agents and solutions to their procurement in quantity.

中文翻译：

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具有抗增殖活性的海洋软体动物源性药物有望成为克服化疗耐药性的抗癌药物

对海洋软体动物的化学研究导致了多种生物活性代谢物的分离，这些代谢物在海洋生物中进化为在不同环境中生存的有利适应。它们大多数来自食物来源，但它们也可以由软体动物本身从头生物合成，或由共生体产生。因此，分离的化合物不能严格视为不同软体动物物种的“化学分类标记”。然而，对该门的化学研究提供了许多感兴趣的化合物作为潜在的抗癌药物，鉴于癌症生物学和化疗文献的不断增加，这些化合物显得尤为重要。当前的综述强调了化学结构、作用机制的多样性，最重要的是，软体动物衍生的代谢物作为抗癌剂的潜力，包括由软体动物生物合成的代谢物和饮食来源的代谢物。在讨论了多拉司他汀和卡哈拉利德（先前在临床试验中研究的化合物）之后，该综述涵盖了潜在有前途的抗癌药物，这些抗癌药物根据其结构类型进行分组，包括萜烯、类固醇、肽、聚酮化合物和含氮化合物。软体动物衍生的天然产物作为抗癌剂的“前景”是根据其针对导致不良治疗结果的癌细胞生物学特性的能力进行评估的。这些特性包括体外对癌细胞的高抗增殖效力、相对于正常细胞优先抑制癌细胞的增殖、通过非凋亡信号通路的作用机制、规避多药耐药表型以及体内高活性等。该综述还包括有关软体动物源性抗癌药物的定向输送及其批量采购解决方案的部分。