The increased interest in nanomedicine and its applicability for a wide range of biological functions demands the search for raw materials to create nanomaterials. Recent trends have focused on the use of green chemistry to synthesize metal and metal-oxide nanoparticles. Bioactive chemicals have been found in a variety of marine organisms, including invertebrates, marine mammals, fish, algae, plankton, fungi, and bacteria. These marine-derived active chemicals have been widely used for various biological properties. Marine-derived materials, either whole extracts or pure components, are employed in the synthesis of nanoparticles due to their ease of availability, low cost of production, biocompatibility, and low cytotoxicity toward eukaryotic cells. These marine-derived nanomaterials have been employed to treat infectious diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, and viruses as well as treat non-infectious diseases, such as tumors, cancer, inflammatory responses, and diabetes, and support wound healing. Furthermore, several polymeric materials derived from the marine, such as chitosan and alginate, are exploited as nanocarriers in drug delivery. Moreover, a variety of pure bioactive compounds have been loaded onto polymeric nanocarriers and employed to treat infectious and non-infectious diseases. The current review is focused on a thorough overview of nanoparticle synthesis and its biological applications made from their entire extracts or pure chemicals derived from marine sources.
Keywords: anticancer; antidiabetic; antiinflammatory; antimicrobial; antioxidant; infectious disease; marine; nanoparticles.