Arisugacin B

Two new meroterpenoids, arisugacins I (1) and J (2), together with five known meroterpenoids including arisugacin B (3), arisugacin F (4), arisugacin G (5), territrem B (6) and territrem C (7) were isolated from an endophytic fungus Penicillium sp. SXH-65. Their structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic experiments and comparison with literature data. Their cytotoxicities were evaluated against Hela, HL-60 and K562 cell lines, and only 3 and 4 exhibited weak cytotoxicities against Hela, HL-60 and K562 cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 24 to 60 μM.

A computational docking study of a series of de novo structural analogs of the highly potent, non-nitrogen containing, acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (+)-arisugacin A is presented. In direct comparison to the recently reported X-ray single-crystal structure of (+)-territrem B bound hAChE, the modeling suggests that there is a unique conformational preference for the E-ring that is responsible for the superior inhibitory activity of (+)-arisugacin A against hAChE relative to (+)-territrem B, and that substitutions on the E-ring also play an important role in the protein-ligand interaction.

Five α-pyrone meroterpenoids, including one new 3-epiarigsugacin E (1) and four known compounds, arisugacin D (2), arisugacin B (3), territrem C (4) and terreulactone C (5) were obtained from the marine fungus Penicillium sp. SK5GW1L. Their structures were identified by MS and NMR experiments, and the absolute configuration of compound 1 was further confirmed by low temperature (150 K) single crystal X-ray diffraction with Cu Kα radiation. Compounds 3, 4 and 5 showed strong inhibitory activities against acetylcholinesterase (AchE) with IC50 values of 3.03, 0.23 and 0.028 μM, respectively.