The Link of Marine Products with Autophagy-Associated Cell Death in Cancer Cell

Purpose of Review: In this review, we describe a role of marine natural products in induction and inhibition of autophagy linked to cancers. Recent Findings: Some of the compounds from marine organism showed ability to induce autophagy that directs death in cancer cells, as well as some of the others might prevent pro-survival autophagy process. The marine products could regulate various autophagy genes, ranging from upstream such as SIRT1 until to the downstream gene in the pathway. In general, marine natural products induce autophagy through the endoplasmic reticulum stress, PI3K /Akt/ mTOR, and p53 signaling. It is even more interesting that the marine compounds are also able to inhibit pro-survival autophagy, for example, polyphenol from Spatoglossum asperum. However, the antilogy should be kept in mind that a small number of marine compounds are known to induce pro-survival autophagy in cancer cells. Summary: Marine life represents more than a half of the world biodiversity and offers a great source of bioactive compounds as drug candidates, including anti-cancer. Nowadays, autophagy has become one of primarily interesting topics in cancer research. Dysregulation of autophagy has been linked to several diseases, predominantly in cancer. There is paradox regarding the role of autophagy in cancer where autophagy can either lead to tumor promotion or suppression. This review showed that some of the marine natural product have activity to induce autophagy that may link to cell death or survival process. Thereof, better understanding on autophagic signaling in tumor cells upon various bioactive compounds from marine organisms is needed to ensure their potential chemotherapeutic tools against human cancers. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.