AS-186c

Two new oxaphenalenone dimers, talaromycesone A (1) and talaromycesone B (2), and a new isopentenyl xanthenone, talaroxanthenone (3), together with six known diphenyl ether derivatives, e.g., Δ(1',3'),-1'-dehydroxypenicillide (4), 1',2'-dehydropenicillide (5), vermixocin A (6), vermixocin B (7), 3'-methoxy-1'2'-dehydropenicillide (8), and AS-186c (9), were isolated from the culture broth and mycelia of a marine fungus Talaromyces sp. strain LF458. Compound 2 represents the first example of 1-nor oxaphenalenone dimer carbon skeleton. All isolated compounds were subjected to bioactivity assays. Compounds 1, 2, and 9 exhibited potent antibacterial activities with IC50 3.70, 17.36, and 1.34 μM, respectively, against human pathogenic Staphylococcus strains. Compounds 1, 3, and 9 displayed potent acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activities with IC50 7.49, 1.61, and 2.60 μM, respectively. Interestingly, phosphodiesterase PDE-4B2 was inhibited by compounds 3 (IC50 7.25 μM) and 9 (IC50 2.63 μM).

AS-186a, b, c, d, and g were isolated from the cultured broth of Penicillium asperosporum KY1635 as inhibitors of acyl-CoA: cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT). IC50 values for the effect of AS-186a, b, c, d, and g against ACAT activity of the microsomes from cholesterol-fed rabbit liver were calculated to be 22.9, 8.2, 11.5, 12.4, and 13.9 microM, respectively. Although AS-186a, and b were identical to penicillide and purpactin A, respectively, AS-186c, d, and g were found to be new compounds.