Anti-infective Agents from Seashells of the Persian Gulf

Emergence of multi-drug resistance bacteria in the world, vast inappropriate usage of anti-infective agents and re-emergence of micro-organisms lead to the beginning of discovery of new anti-infective agents from the sea by the scientists. A total of known 611 seashells species in the Persian Gulf were investigated for synonymy in OBIS database. Then, all the species, including their synonymy were searched in PubMed database to find their isolated bioactive agents. From 611 known seashells in the Persian Gulf, 172 genera/species had bioactive compounds. Anti-infective agents were isolated and purified for 11 genera. The crude or purified extracts from these seashells were active against gram-positive bacteria (5 seashells), gram-negative bacteria (4 seashells), viruses (2 seashells), fungi and leishmania (each one seashell). Two molecular probe s for invasive organisms were also reported from two seashells. The known seashells from the Persian Gulf have potential anti-infective compounds and increase in the efforts to isolate these agents will promise a treasure for novel anti-infective agents.