Metabolites With Cytotoxic Activities From the Mangrove Endophytic Fungus Fusarium sp. 2ST2

Natural Bacterial and Fungal Peptides as a Promising Treatment to Defeat Lung Cancer Cells

Despite the increasing availability of modern treatments, including personalized therapies, there is a strong need to search for new drugs that will be effective in the fight against cancer. The chemotherapeutics currently available to oncologists do not always yield satisfactory outcomes when used in systemic treatments, and patients experience burdensome side effects during their application. In the era of personalized therapies, doctors caring for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients have been given a powerful weapon, namely molecularly targeted therapies and immunotherapies. They can be used when genetic variants of the disease qualifying for therapy are diagnosed. These therapies have contributed to the extension of the overall survival time in patients. Nevertheless, effective treatment may be hindered in the case of clonal selection of tumor cells with acquired resistance mutations. The state-of-the-art therapy currently used in NSCLC patients is immunotherapy targeting the immune checkpoints. Although it is effective, some patients have been observed to develop resistance to immunotherapy, but its cause is still unknown. Personalized therapies extend the lifespan and time to cancer progression in patients, but only those with a confirmed marker qualifying for the treatment (gene mutations/rearrangements or PD-L1 expression on tumor cells) can benefit from these therapies. They also cause less burdensome side effects than chemotherapy. The article is focused on compounds that can be used in oncology and produce as few side effects as possible. The search for compounds of natural origin, e.g., plants, bacteria, or fungi, exhibiting anticancer properties seems to be a good solution. This article is a literature review of research on compounds of natural origin that can potentially be used as part of NSCLC therapies.

Anticancer therapeutic potential of benzofuran scaffolds

Benzofuran moiety is the main component of many biologically active natural and synthetic heterocycles. These heterocycles have unique therapeutic potentials and are involved in various clinical drugs. The reported results confirmed the extraordinary inhibitory potency of such benzofurans against a panel of human cancer cell lines compared with a wide array of reference anticancer drugs. Several publications about the anticancer potencies of benzofuran-based heterocycles were encountered. The recent developments of anticancer activities of both natural and synthetic benzofuran scaffolds during 2019-2022 are thoroughly covered. Many of the described benzofurans are promising candidates for development as anticancer agents based on their outstanding inhibitory potency against a panel of human cancer cells compared with reference anticancer drugs. These findings encourage medicinal chemists to explore new areas to improve human health and reduce suffering.

Cytotoxic hexadepsipeptides and anti-coronaviral 4-hydroxy-2-pyridones from an endophytic Fusarium sp

Three new hexadepsipeptides (1-3), along with beauvericin (4), beauvericin D (5), and four 4-hydroxy-2-pyridone derivatives (6-9) were isolated from the endophytic fungus Fusarium sp. CPCC 400857 that derived from the stem of tea plant. Their structures were determined by extensive 1D and 2D NMR, and HRESIMS analyses. The absolute configuration of hexadepsipeptides were elucidated by the advanced Marfey's method and chiral HPLC analysis. Compounds 4, and 7-9 displayed the cytotoxicity against human pancreatic cancer cell line, AsPC-1 with IC₅₀ values ranging from 3.45 to 29.69 μM, and 7 and 8 also showed the antiviral activity against the coronavirus (HCoV-OC43) with IC₅₀ values of 13.33 and 6.65 μM, respectively.

Anti-Tumor Secondary Metabolites Originating from Fungi in the South China Sea's Mangrove Ecosystem

A mangrove is a unique ecosystem with abundant resources, in which fungi are an indispensable microbial part. Numerous mangrove fungi-derived secondary metabolites are considerable sources of novel bioactive substances, such as polyketides, terpenoids, alkaloids, peptides, etc., which arouse people's interest in the search for potential natural anti-tumor drugs. This review includes a total of 44 research publications that described 110 secondary metabolites that were all shown to be anti-tumor from 39 mangrove fungal strains belonging to 18 genera that were acquired from the South China Sea between 2016 and 2022. To identify more potential medications for clinical tumor therapy, their sources, unique structures, and cytotoxicity qualities were compiled. This review could serve as a crucial resource for the research status of mangrove fungal-derived natural products deserving of further development.

Pyrrospirones K-Q, Decahydrofluorene-Class Alkaloids from the Marine-Derived Fungus Penicillium sp. SCSIO 41512

Seven new decahydrofluorene-class alkaloids, pyrrospirones K-Q (1-7), together with six known analogues (8-13) were isolated from the marine-derived fungal strain Penicillium sp. SCSIO 41512. Their structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic analysis, and their absolute configurations were established by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and quantum chemical calculations of electronic circular dichroism spectra. Compounds 1 and 3 possess a novel decahydrofluorene-class alkaloid skeleton with a 6/5/6/8/5/6/13 and a 6/5/6/5/6/13 polycyclic system, respectively. Biologically, 13 displayed significant inhibitory activity against protein tyrosine phosphatases CD45, TCPTP, SHP1, and PTP1B with IC₅₀ values of 8.1-17.8 μM, and 1, 2, 5, 8-10, 12, and 13 showed antibacterial activity against six pathogens. Their structure-activity relationship is also discussed.

Diversified Polyketides With Anti-inflammatory Activities From Mangrove Endophytic Fungus Daldinia eschscholtzii KBJYZ-1

In total, five new polyketide derivatives: eschscholin B (2), dalditone A and B (3 and 4), (1R, 4R)-5-methoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene-1,4-dio (5), and daldilene A (6), together with 10 known as analogs (1, 7-15) were isolated from the mangrove endophytic fungus Daldinia eschscholtzii KBJYZ-1. Their structures and absolute configurations were established by extensive analysis of NMR and HRESIMS spectra data combined with ECD calculations and the reported literature. Compounds 2 and 6 showed significant cell-based anti-inflammatory activities with IC₅₀ values of 19.3 and 12.9 μM, respectively. In addition, western blot results suggested that compound 2 effectively inhibits the expression of iNOS and COX-2 in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells. Further molecular biology work revealed the potential mechanism of 2 exerts anti-inflammatory function by inactivating the MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways.