Destomycin B

Hundred and twenty microbial isolates could be isolated from different soil samples collected from different localities in Egypt. One of the actinomycete culture AZ-H-A5 from three cultures was found to produce a wide spectrum antimicrobial agent when cultivated on rice straw. The actinomycete AZ-H-A5 could be isolated from a soil sample collected from Helwan district, Egypt. The nucleotide sequence of the 16s RNA gene (1.5 Kb) of the most potent strain evidenced an 85% similarity with Streptomyces pseudovenezue, EU841712 and Streptomyces galilaeus. From the taxonomic features, the actinomycetes isolate AZ-H-A5 matches with Streptomyces rimosus in the morphological, physiological and biochemical characters. Thus, it was given the suggested name Streptomyces rimosus, AZ-H-A5. The parameters controlling the biosynthetic process of antimicrobial agent formation including: inoculum size, different pH values, different temperatures, different incubation period, and different carbon and nitrogen sources, potassium nitrate, K2HPO4, MgSO4.7H2O and KCl concentrations were fully investigates. The active metabolite was extracted using ethyl acetate (1:1, v/v) at pH 7.0. The separation of the active ingredient and its purification was performed using both thin layer chromatography (TLC) and column chromatography (CC) techniques. The physicochemical characteristics of the purified antibiotic viz. color, melting point, solubility, elemental analysis, spectroscopic characteristics and chemical reactions have been investigated. This analysis indicates a suggested empirical formula of C20H37N13O13. The minimum inhibition concentrations "MICs" of the purified antimicrobial agent were also determined. The purified antimicrobial agent was suggestive of being belonging to Destomycin-A antibiotic produced by Streptomyces rimosus, AZ-H-A5.

A new antiviral aminoglycoside antibiotic, 1-N-eicosanoyl-3''-N-(trifluoroacetyl) kanamycin, was found to inhibit SV40 DNA replication in vitro. Several other aminoglycoside antibiotics examined did not exhibit a significant inhibition of SV40 DNA replication. The elongation of the SV40 DNA strand was profoundly affected by this agent. The degree of inhibition was decreased by increasing the amount of DNA template, but not by increasing the amount of enzyme. The inhibition of SV40 DNA replication is attributed to the interaction between the agent and the DNA template.

More than 400 compounds isolated from soil microorganisms, and catalogued in the antibiotic library of the Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences, were screened against African trypanosomes. Ten compounds were found to have selective and potent antitrypanosomal activity in vitro: aureothin, cellocidin, destomycin A, echinomycin, hedamycin, irumamycin, LL-Z 1272beta, O-methylnanaomycin A, venturicidin A and virustomycin A. Results of the in vitro assays using the GUTat 3.1 strain of Trypanosomal brucei brucei and the STIB900 strain of T. b. rhodesiense are presented. Cytotoxicity was determined using a human MRC-5 cell line. This is the first report of antitrypanosomal activities of the 10 microbial metabolites listed above.