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of new commercial pharmaceutical products. 

 Most active substances from the sea now 

 under study may be divided into two broad 

 classes : 



• Antibiotics, which are used to control and 

 destroy the organisms that cause diseases 



• Systemic drugs, which act directly on parts 

 of the body to alleviate pain, stimulate or 

 relax, promote healing, vary the speed of 

 such biochemical reactions as blood clot- 

 ting, influence the operation of certain 

 organs, or act as antidotes to poisons. 



Nearly all of these drugs are poisons at 

 certain concentrations, including the anti- 

 biotics which, presumably, kill only patho- 

 genic bacteria. There are more kinds of 

 animals in the sea than on land, and a greater 

 proportion of them use poisons as part of 

 their equipment for survival. So far, less 

 than one per qent of all the sea organisms 

 known to contain biologically active mate- 

 rials have been studied. 



Antibiotics from the marine world will 

 become more important as the older drugs 

 upon which medical practice has relied for 

 the past 20 years become less effective against 

 new generations of resistant germs. 



Contemporary experimental marine biol- 

 ogy has indicated that other pharmacologi- 

 cally active substances, categorized as toxins 

 or poisons, also can be obtained from marine 

 organisms. Study of poisonous marine or- 

 ganisms is required also to understand marine 

 ecology, to protect against the illnesses 

 caused by eating poison-laden fish foods, and 

 to help develop new protein foods from the 

 ocean. 



A poison is merely an intense inhibitor 

 or stimulator of critical biological processes. 

 Diluted, a poison is highly useful and often 

 a very effective therapeutic agent. Research 

 among toxins for antitoxins has unearthed 

 a host of fascinating pharmacological 



properties variously described as anti- 

 viral, antibiotic, antitumor, hemolytic, anal- 

 gesic, psychopharmacological, cardioinhibi- 

 tory, fungicidal, and growth inhibitory. 

 Indications are that some marine toxins rank 

 among the most toxic substances known. 

 Chemicals isolated from certain toxic marine 

 fishes are 200,000 times more powerful in 

 blocking nervous activity than drugs cur- 

 rently used in laboratories for nerve and 

 brain research. A substance extracted from 

 the primitive hagfish has been used experi- 

 mentally to slow down the heart during open- 

 heart surgery making it easier to operate. 

 Antitumor and antimicrobial agents are 

 present in such common organisms as clams 

 and oysters. 



Attempts to find useful, active substances 

 in the sea by searching folklore, studying 

 biological activities of marine plants and 

 animals, and studying or interviewing native 

 witch doctors produce little and are costly. 

 It costs even more to use traditional methods 

 to screen natural products at random. Drug 

 companies have many more research op- 

 portunities than they possibly can under- 

 take because of limited manpower and 

 capital. Yet there is a vast array of marine 

 biochemical agents having potent biological 

 activity, and many of them may be useful 

 therapeutic agents. 



The Commission recommends establish- 

 ment of a National Institute of Marine 

 Medicine and Pharmacology in the Na- 

 tional Institutes of Health to effect a 

 methodical evaluation of the sea as a 

 source of new and useful active sub- 

 stances. The new Institute should : 



• Inventory presently known bioactive 

 substances 



• Examine those factors which relate to 

 the ecology of marine organisms and 

 their pharmacology 



