Dihydrolucilactaene, a Potent Antimalarial Compound from <i>Fusarium</i> sp. RK97-94
Islam A. Abdelhakim, Fauze Mahmud, Takayuki Motoyama, Yushi Futamura, Shunji Takahashi, Hiroyuki Osada
Abstract
A recently discovered secondary metabolism regulator, NPD938, was used to alter the secondary metabolite profile in Fusarium sp. RK97-94. Three lucilactaene analogues were detected via UPLC-ESI-MS analysis in NPD938-treated culture. The three metabolites were successfully purified and identified as dihydroNG391 (1), dihydrolucilactaene (2), and 13α-hydroxylucilactaene (3) via extensive spectroscopic analyses. DihydroNG391 (1) exhibited weak in vitro antimalarial activity (IC50 = 62 μM). In contrast, dihydrolucilactaene (2) and 13α-hydroxylucilactaene (3) showed very potent antimalarial activity (IC50 = 0.0015 and 0.68 μM, respectively). These findings provide insight into the structure–activity relationship of lucilactaene and its analogues as antimalarial lead compounds.