ExtremoPharm

The aim of the project is bioprospecting, isolation and characterization of novel secondary metabolites, produced by extremophilic microorganisms. The project is dedicated to a poorly investigated problem of antagonistic interactions between extremophilic microorganisms in their communities, namely, to the investigation of the ability of extremophiles to produce secondary metabolites with biocidic, cytotoxic and cytostatic activities. Working out this problem will fulfill an important applied task by discovery of novel compounds potentially useful as medical bioactive substances for antibiotic, antimycotic and anti-tumor preparations with novel spectra of activities. Nowadays, bioactive compounds produced by mesophilic prokaryotic microorganisms as secondary metabolites are widely used in practice. Because of adaptive mutations of target pathogens, the need for new robust antimicrobial agents becomes urgent and stimulates screening for novel biocides in a variety of known phylogenetic groups of prokaryotes. Until now, soil microorganisms were principal sources of antibiotics. The group of extremophiles remains out of most screened microbial phyla because of the difficulties of their cultivation. Extremophilic microorganisms, proliferating in the conditions extreme for all other prokaryotes and eukaryotes, are widespread in natural and anthropogenic extreme habitats (e.g. in hydrotherms or hot industrial wastewaters). In most of these ecosystems stable and complex communities are formed consisting of a variety of physiologically and taxonomically divergent groups of extremophilic microorganisms, interacting and competing with each other. Although the mechanisms of interspecies interactions in extremophiles remain virtually unknown. Available primary data opens a vast area for search for new antimicrobials with new spectra of robust activities that could be potential candidates for efficient application in pharmacology.