2019, Kovalchuk, Valentine, Voronkina, Alona, Binnewerg, Björn, Schubert, Mario, Muzychka, Liubov, Wysokowski, Marcin, Tsurkan, Mikhail V., Bechmann, Nicole, Petrenko, Iaroslav, Fursov, Andriy, Martinovic, Rajko, Ivanenko, Viatcheslav N., Fromont, Jane, Smolii, Oleg B., Joseph, Yvonne, Giovine, Marco, Erpenbeck, Dirk, Gelinsky, Michael, Springer, Armin, Guan, Kaomei, Bornstein, Stefan R., Ehrlich, Hermann

Naturally occurring three-dimensional (3D) biopolymer-based matrices that can be used in different biomedical applications are sustainable alternatives to various artificial 3D materials. For this purpose, chitin-based structures from marine sponges are very promising substitutes. Marine sponges from the order Verongiida (class Demospongiae) are typical examples of demosponges with well-developed chitinous skeletons. In particular, species belonging to the family Ianthellidae possess chitinous, flat, fan-like fibrous skeletons with a unique, microporous 3D architecture that makes them particularly interesting for applications. In this work, we focus our attention on the demosponge Ianthella flabelliformis (Linnaeus, 1759) for simultaneous extraction of both naturally occurring (“ready-to-use”) chitin scaffolds, and biologically active bromotyrosines which are recognized as potential antibiotic, antitumor, and marine antifouling substances. We show that selected bromotyrosines are located within pigmental cells which, however, are localized within chitinous skeletal fibers of I. flabelliformis. A two-step reaction provides two products: treatment with methanol extracts the bromotyrosine compounds bastadin 25 and araplysillin-I N20 sulfamate, and a subsequent treatment with acetic acid and sodium hydroxide exposes the 3D chitinous scaffold. This scaffold is a mesh-like structure, which retains its capillary network, and its use as a potential drug delivery biomaterial was examined for the first time. The results demonstrate that sponge-derived chitin scaffolds, impregnated with decamethoxine, effectively inhibit growth of the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus in an agar diffusion assay

2019, Shaala, Lamiaa A., Asfour, Hani Z., Youssef, Diaa T.A., Żółtowska-Aksamitowska, Sonia, Wysokowski, Marcin, Tsurkan, Mikhail, Galli, Roberta, Meissner, Heike, Petrenko, Iaroslav, Tabachnick, Konstantin, Ivanenko, Viatcheslav N., Bechmann, Nicole, Muzychka, Lyubov V., Smolii, Oleg B., Martinović, Rajko, Joseph, Yvonne, Jesionowski, Teofil, Ehrlich, Hermann

The bioactive bromotyrosine-derived alkaloids and unique morphologically-defined fibrous skeleton of chitin origin have been found recently in marine demosponges of the order Verongiida. The sophisticated three-dimensional (3D) structure of skeletal chitinous scaffolds supported their use in biomedicine, tissue engineering as well as in diverse modern technologies. The goal of this study was the screening of new species of the order Verongiida to find another renewable source of naturally prefabricated 3D chitinous scaffolds. Special attention was paid to demosponge species, which could be farmed on large scale using marine aquaculture methods. In this study, the demosponge Pseudoceratina arabica collected in the coastal waters of the Egyptian Red Sea was examined as a potential source of chitin for the first time. Various bioanalytical tools including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fluorescence microscopy, FTIR analysis, Calcofluor white staining, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), as well as a chitinase digestion assay were successfully used to confirm the discovery of a-chitin within the skeleton of P. arabica. The current finding should make an important contribution to the field of application of this verongiid sponge as a novel renewable source of biologically-active metabolites and chitin, which are important for development of the blue biotechnology especially in marine oriented biomedicine. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

2019, Klinger, Christine, Zółtowska-Aksamitowska, Sonia, Wysokowski, Marcin, Tsurkan, Mikhail V., Galli, Roberta, Petrenko, Iaroslav, Machałowski, Tomasz, Ereskovsky, Alexander, Martinović, Rajko, Muzychka, Lyubov, Smolii, Oleg B., Bechmann, Nicole, Ivanenko, Viatcheslav, Schupp, Peter J., Jesionowski, Teofil, Giovine, Marco, Bornstein, Stefan R., Voronkina, Alona, Ehrlich, Hermann

Sponges are a valuable source of natural compounds and biomaterials for many biotechnological applications. Marine sponges belonging to the order Verongiida are known to contain both chitin and biologically active bromotyrosines. Aplysina archeri (Aplysineidae: Verongiida) is well known to contain bromotyrosines with relevant bioactivity against human and animal diseases. The aim of this study was to develop an express method for the production of naturally prefabricated 3D chitin and bromotyrosine-containing extracts simultaneously. This new method is based on microwave irradiation (MWI) together with stepwise treatment using 1% sodium hydroxide, 20% acetic acid, and 30% hydrogen peroxide. This approach, which takes up to 1 h, made it possible to isolate chitin from the tube-like skeleton of A. archeri and to demonstrate the presence of this biopolymer in this sponge for the first time. Additionally, this procedure does not deacetylate chitin to chitosan and enables the recovery of ready-to-use 3D chitin scaffolds without destruction of the unique tube-like fibrous interconnected structure of the isolated biomaterial. Furthermore, these mechanically stressed fibers still have the capacity for saturation with water, methylene blue dye, crude oil, and blood, which is necessary for the application of such renewable 3D chitinous centimeter-sized scaffolds in diverse technological and biomedical fields. © 2019 by the authors.