Looking at Marine-Derived Bioactive Molecules as Upcoming Anti-Diabetic Agents: A Special Emphasis on PTP1B Inhibitors

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disease with high morbimortality rates. DM has two types: type 1, which is often associated with a total destruction of pancreatic beta cells, and non-insulin-dependent or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), more closely associated with obesity and old age. The main causes of T2DM are insulin resistance and/or inadequate insulin secretion. Protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) negatively regulates insulin signaling pathways and plays an important role in T2DM, as its overexpression may induce insulin resistance. Thus, since PTP1B may be a therapeutic target for both T2DM and obesity, the search for novel and promising natural inhibitors has gained much attention. Hence, several marine organisms, including macro and microalgae, sponges, marine invertebrates, sea urchins, seaweeds, soft corals, lichens, and sea grasses, have been recently evaluated as potential drug sources. This review provides an overview of the role of PTP1B in T2DM insulin signaling and treatment, and highlights the recent findings of several compounds and extracts derived from marine organisms and their relevance as upcoming PTP1B inhibitors. In this systematic literature review, more than 60 marine-derived metabolites exhibiting PTP1B inhibitory activity are listed. Their chemical classes, structural features, relative PTP1B inhibitory potency (assessed by IC(50) values), and structure–activity relationships (SARs) that could be drawn from the available data are discussed. The upcoming challenge in the field of marine research—metabolomics—is also addressed.