Mycalamides, pederin and psymberin as natural carbohydrates and potential antitumor agents: past and future perspectives.

The mycalamide class of potent antiviral and antitumor natural compounds originally isolated from marine sponges in 1988 is a new interdisciplinary approach to molecular recognition. We review new synthetic approaches to this new family of natural products with remarkable biological activity. Some biological evaluation data are compiled and compared to other structurally similar molecular targets.