Addressing supply issues for natural products in the clinic

An efficient chemical synthesis of scarce bryostatin 1 will enable wider clinical trials Natural products isolated from marine sources have served as the basis for numerous structurally intriguing compounds with potent biological activity ( 1 ). Securing access to sufficient quantities of these often scarce compounds is frequently a key impediment to demonstrating their clinical potential. Strategies to overcome this “supply problem,” include harvesting natural source organisms, aquaculture, cell culture of compound-producing organisms (i.e., microbial symbionts), and chemical synthesis ( 1 – 3 ). On page 218 of this issue, Wender et al. ( 4 ) report a new approach to addressing supply issues associated with the marine natural product bryostatin 1—an efficient chemical synthesis. This synthesis provides increased access to this potent protein kinase C modulator and should facilitate continued clinical investigation of bryostatin 1 as an anticancer agent, Alzheimer's treatment, and HIV latency-reversing agent ( 5 ).