High throughput screening of the naturebank ‘marine collection’ in a haemonchus bioassay identifies anthelmintic activity in extracts from a range of sponges from australian waters

Abstract

Widespread resistance in parasitic nematodes to most classes of anthelmintic drugs de-mands the discovery and development of novel compounds with distinct mechanisms of action to complement strategic or integrated parasite control programs. Products from nature—which assume a diverse ‘chemical space’—have significant potential as a source of anthelmintic compounds. In the present study, we screened a collection of extracts (n = 7616) derived from marine invertebrates sampled from Australian waters in a high throughput bioassay for in vitro anti-parasitic activity against the barber’s pole worm (Haemonchus contortus)—an economically important parasitic nematode of livestock animals. In this h..