Marine natural products with monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitory activity

CONTEXT: Research interest in monoamine oxidase (MAO) as a promising drug target for neurodegenerative diseases has a long history. However, efforts to develop MAO inhibitors (MAOIs) from marine sources have been limited, despite the increasing number of interesting marine natural products. OBJECTIVE: To review the potential of marine natural products as MAOIs source, including their activities and selectivity on MAO. METHODS: Public databases such as SciFinder, MarinLit and PubMed were systematically searched from 1991 until Dec 2019. MAO and MAOI were the key terms searched combined with marine natural products and marine. RESULTS: Six classes of marine natural products with good selectivity between the two MAO subtypes were organized with their selectivity and sources. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first review to investigate the potential of marine natural products as MAOIs source. Despite the small number of known MAOIs from marine sources, marine natural products are potential leads for the further development of MAOI drugs with novel chemical frames and good selectivity.