BE-52440A

Human leukocyte elastase is an important selection target of inflammation and cancer. In this paper, a high throughput screening model was established for screening human leukocyte elastase inhibitors from thousands of strains of actinomycetes. As a result, a strain, N01WA-735 with potent suppression activity was isolated. Firstly, the strain N01WA-735 was identified as Streptomyces according to morphology and biochemical analysis. The Streptomyces N01WA-735 was processed by solvent extraction, silica column chromatography, Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography and crystallization to get a pure active compound named N01WA-735E. Its chemical structure was elucidated as the same as that of the compound named BE-52440A by physicochemical properties and spectral data of UV, MS, 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR respectively. The compound showed a strong inhibitory activity against human leukocyte elastase with IC50 of 3.02 micromol/L. The compound is reported as a human leukocyte elastase inhibitor for the first time.

S-Bridged pyranonaphthoquinone dimers, naquihexcins A and B (1 and 2), together with a related analogue (-)-BE-52440A (3) were obtained from the culture of a sponge-derived Streptomyces sp. HDN-10-293. Naquihexcin A (1) bears a rare unsaturated hexuronic acid moiety, and (-)-BE-52440A (3) has been discovered from natural resources. Compound 3 showed cytotoxicity against NB4 and HL-60 cells, while 1 could inhibit the proliferation of the adriamycin resistant human breast cancer cell line MCF-7 ADM.

New cytotoxic substances, designated BE-52440A and B, were isolated from the mycelium of Streptomyces sp. A52440. The active principles were extracted from the mycelium by methanol and purified by silica gel column chromatography. BE-52440A and B exhibited cytotoxic activity against murine and human tumor cell lines.