Chemical study of the ethyl acetate extract of this fungal strain, when fermented on slants of potato dextrose agar, afforded two new cytochalasans, including trichalasin A (35) and trichalasin B (36), in addition to several known derivatives. The structures of 35–36 were unambiguously elucidated based on extensive NMR spectroscopy and HRMS analysis. Their absolute configurations were tentatively assigned #see more randurls[1|1|,|CHEM1|]# to be the same as those of the known derivatives aspochalasins I and J based on biogenetic considerations. Aspochalasin J (37) displayed weak inhibitory activity with an IC50 value of 27.8 μM, when tested against HeLa cells, whereas the other
compounds showed only moderate activity (IC50 > 40 μM) (Ding et al. 2012). Bioassay-guided fractionation of a methanolic extract of the sponge derived fungus Arthrinium sp. afforded ten natural products including five new diterpenoids, arthrinins A-D (38–41) and myrocin D (42). The sponge was collected from the Adriatic Sea near Italy and was identified as Geodia cydonium (Geodiidae). The structures of isolated metabolites were unambiguously elucidated based on extensive NMR and HR-MS analyses. Furthermore, the absolute configuration of arthrinins
A–D (38–41) was established by interpretation of their ROESY spectra GANT61 solubility dmso as well as by the convenient Mosher method performed in NMR tubes. Using the MTT assay, all isolated compounds were tested for their in vitro antiproliferative activity against four different tumor cell lines, including mouse lymphoma (L5178Y), human erythromyeloblastoid leukemia (K562), human ovarian cancer (A2780) and cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer cells
(A2780CisR). Among the tested compounds, only the known metabolite anomalin A (43) exhibited strong and selective activities with IC50 values of 0.40, 4.34, and 26.0 μM against L5178Y, A2780, and A2780CisR tumor cell lines, respectively. However, it was not active against the K562 cell line. The isolated compounds were also tested against 16 protein kinases to identify possible mechanisms of action of the active metabolites. Both known compounds 43 and norlichexanthone (44) inhibited one or more of the tested kinases by at least 40 %, suggesting that inhibition of protein Tacrolimus (FK506) kinases may be one of the major mechanisms contributing to their antiproliferative activity (Ebada et al. 2011). Cultures of Aspergillus ustus, isolated from the mangrove plant Acrostichum aureum (Pteridaceae) growing in Guangxi Province, China, yielded five new drimane sesquiterpenes (45–49) together with 14 known analogues. When tested for their cytotoxicities against murine leukemic (P388), human promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60), human erythromyeloblastoid leukemia (K562) and human hepatocellular carcinoma (BEL-7402) cells, only 48 exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against the P388 cell line with an IC50 value of 8.7 μM, whereas the other compounds were inactive.