Hypnophilin

Hypnophilin and panepoxydone, terpenoids isolated from Lentinus strigosus, have significant inhibitory activity on Trypanosoma cruzi trypanothione reductase (TR). Although they have similar TR inhibitory activity at 10 μg/mL (40.3 μM and 47.6 μM for hypnophilin and panepoxydone, respectively; ~100%), hypnophilin has a slightly greater inhibitory activity (~71%) on T. cruzi amastigote (AMA) growth in vitro as well as on in vitro phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-induced peripheral blood mononuclear (PBMC) proliferation (~70%) compared to panepoxydone (69% AMA inhibition and 91% PBMC inhibition). Hypnophilin and panepoxydone at 1.25 μg/mL had 67% inhibitory activity onLeishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis amastigote-like (AMA-like) growth in vitro. The panepoxydone activity was accompanied by a significant inhibitory effect on PHA-induced PBMC proliferation, suggesting a cytotoxic action. Moreover, incubation of human PBMC with panepoxydone reduced the percentage of CD16(+) and CD14(+) cells and down-regulated CD19(+), CD4(+) and CD8(+) cells, while hypnophilin did not alter any of the phenotypes analyzed. These data indicate that hypnophilin may be considered to be a prototype for the design of drugs for the chemotherapy of diseases caused by Trypanosomatidae.

Eight-membered carbocycles are found in a wide variety of natural products that exhibit a broad range of biological and medicinal activities (cf. the most potent anticancer drug, taxol). However, the synthesis of eight-membered carbocycles is quite challenging as traditional approaches are met with entropic and enthalpic penalties in the ring-forming transition states. These negative effects can be totally or partially avoided with the implementation of transition-metal-catalyzed/mediated cycloadditions. In this Focus Review, examples of elegant and efficient metal-catalyzed and some metal-mediated cycloadditions (including Ni- catalyzed [4+4] and Rh-catalyzed [4+2+2] and [5+2+1] reactions) are presented to illustrate this. Application of these cycloaddition reactions in total synthesis is also presented to show the significance of these reactions in addressing challenges in natural product synthesis.

Hypnophilin (HNP) is a sesquiterpene that is isolated from Lentinus cf. strigosus and has cytotoxic activities. Here, we studied the calcium signaling and cytotoxic effects of HNP in UACC-62 cells, a human skin melanoma cell line. HNP was able to increase the intracellular calcium concentration in UACC-62 cells, which was blocked in cells stimulated in Ca(2+) -free media. HNP treatment with BAPTA-AM, an intracellular Ca(2+) chelator, caused an increase in calcium signals. HNP showed cytotoxicity against UACC-62 cells in which it induced DNA fragmentation and morphological alterations, including changes in the nuclear chromatin profile and increased cytoplasmatic vacuolization, but it had no effect on the plasma membrane integrity. These data suggest that cytotoxicity in UACC-62 cells, after treatment with HNP, is associated with Ca(2+) influx. Together, these findings suggest that HNP is a relevant tool for the further investigation of new anticancer approaches.