Quantum Chemical Calculations, Molecular Docking, ADMET and Unveiling Therapeutic Potential of Marine Alkaloid Petrosamine: Shows Promise for Anxiolytic, Anticonvulsant, and Memory-Preserving Effects in Zebrafish Model

Abstract Research into natural products of marine origin has experienced a rapid advance during the 21st century due to the discovery of the various pharmacological potentialities reported in the literature of exclusively marine bioactives with mechanisms of action involving important biological activities found in various species of marine organisms. The pyridoacridine alkaloid petrosamine, extracted from species of sea sponges of the genus Petrosia sp ., which occur on the coast of the state of Ceará, is a natural marine compound with experimentally proven neuroprotective pharmacological properties. The aim of this article is to evaluate the anxiolytic, sedative, anticonvulsant and memory-preventing effects of the marine alkaloid extract petrosamine in adult zebrafish . Thus, the findings confirm the pharmacological potential of petrosamine as an anxiolytic and memory-suppressing agent, supporting its investigation in new therapeutic strategies. Moreover, petrosamine exhibits intermediate chemical reactivity, characterized by a moderate HOMO–LUMO energy gap and high electrophilicity. The MEP and Fukui function analyses consistently highlight the cationic nitrogen atoms as electrophilic centers, while the oxygen and bromine atoms represent the main nucleophilic regions. Petrosamine had a sedative and anxiolytic effect and prevented memory in adult zebrafish via GABAergic neurotransmission. The studies evaluated indicate that compounds of marine origin are emerging as a promising source of bioactive compounds, revealing an important therapeutic potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.