Science Centres: Fisheries

Anti-inflammatories and skin-care products from the sea

There is enormous potential to develop high-value pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, agrochemical, and other products based on bioactive compounds found in the natural environment.

The biologically diverse tropical rain forests have been seen as the most likely source of useful bioactive compounds, particularly for pharmaceutical applications, but many now consider the oceans as a rival because of their diversity of life. NIWA’s bioactives research team is well placed to seek out the benefits from New Zealand’s marine biodiversity.

Unique plants and animals tend to contain unique chemical compounds which can have great value as components of drugs and agrochemicals. New Zealand is well endowed – the total number of species in the oceans around New Zealand is extremely high compared with that in many other countries, with about 10% of all known marine species being found in our region.

NIWA has been researching bioactive compounds from marine species for over a decade. Our position as one of New Zealand’s premiere marine biotechnology providers arose because we have excellent access to the rich biodiversity in our oceans and staff who have the expertise to collect, identify, screen, and grow the organisms containing bioactive compounds.

The NIWA bioactives team is currently involved in two significant FRST funded programmes. One focuses on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) for the pharmaceutical market, and the other is aimed at nutraceuticals for the skin-care market.

Anti-inflammatories

The NSAID programme aims to discover and develop compounds sourced from New Zealand’s biota for use as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The world anti-inflammatory market is large, especially for NSAIDs, which in 2002 was estimated to be worth US$3.4 billion in the United States alone. With worldwide populations ageing, an increasing number of people require medication for age-related inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis. Similarly, there is a worldwide increase in the number of people with allergic diseases, such as asthma. Both of these diseases have high incidence in New Zealand and both are treated with anti-inflammatories.

The NSAID programme is a joint venture between NIWA, Crop & Food Research, and Malcorp BioDiscoveries, with support from the universities of Auckland and Otago and two clinicians.

NIWA has a large collection of marine samples and experts available to identify the specimens we collect. Identification is important to ensure accurate re-collection of any bioactive-containing organisms. NIWA also has considerable expertise in aquaculture. Many potentially excellent drugs found in the marine environment have not been commercialised because the organisms in which they have been found are too rare to withstand harvesting in the quantities required for development. We need to be able to grow the organisms producing the bioactive compounds, at least until after the first stage of clinical trials has been completed.

Crop & Food Research provides a complementary collection of terrestrial plant samples, knowledge of farming options for many plants, and expertise in natural products chemistry. Malcorp BioDiscoveries bring specialised screening capability, and the clinicians provide expertise for clinical trials. The universities provide expertise in natural products chemistry and in formulating the different compounds to ensure good drug delivery.

We have already started to identify potentially useful compounds for the NSAID market and several are undergoing chemical structure analysis. The next stages are formulation and drug delivery trials to ensure the compounds act at the site of the inflammation and don’t produce bad side effects.

Nutraceuticals from seafood

NIWA’s second FRST funded programme, Te Whatukura a Takaroa: Nutraceuticals from Seafood, aims to rapidly progress the identification and development of nutraceutical products based on bioactives derived from the New Zealand seafood industry for the skin-care market. Consumer demand for natural products in this lucrative market continues to grow: estimates for 2000 were US$6.6 billion in the United States, US$1.1 billion in the United Kingdom, and US$1.6 billion in France. Currently, very few products are based on marine bioactives, but major skin-care companies are expanding the source of bioactives used in their product range to take advantage of the consumer perception that biological products from the marine environment have potent nutraceutical properties, especially for skin health.

The programme is a partnership between NIWA and Ngai Tahu Seafood. Integration of the strong research skills of NIWA with the commercialisation, marketing capability, and export orientation of Ngai Tahu Seafood will ensure rapid development and commercialisation of new products. NIWA provides the screens to identify compounds with potential as commercially attractive products and the chemical identification of the compounds that we find. Determining a chemical structure is an important step in the protection of discoveries in this field through processes such as patenting.

The search is focused on antioxidants which help prevent skin ageing, and vasodilators that help increase blood flow in the skin and thus assist in the removal of toxins that accumulate due to daily wear and tear. The same screen will also identify compounds that decrease blood flow. These compounds are potentially useful for people who have red skin and wish to reduce their colour. Compounds that help skin repair are the targets of yet another screen.

In the next year we will be establishing a non-animal test system to check the compounds we find. Ngai Tahu Seafood provide the raw material, primarily in the form of fish byproducts and bycatch. Use of this raw material for a skin-care product will add considerable value to something that is currently thrown away or used for low-value products such as fish meal. Additional benefits to the seafood industry are expected to be associated with increasing the economic viability of aquaculture species such as paua, establishing new fisheries, and identifying new aquaculture candidates.

Vicky Webb [ v.webb@niwa.co.nz ]