Indocarbazostatin B

Two novel indolocarbazol-type bioactive molecules, indocarbazostatin (1) and indocarbazostatin B (2), were isolated as inhibitors of NGF-induced neuronal differentiation in rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells from a culture broth of a Streptomyces sp. The structures of these compounds were determined by HR-FAB-MS, UV, 1H and 13C NMR, 1H-1H COSY, PFG HMBC, PFG HMQC and DIF NOE experiments. The relative and absolute configurations were deduced from MM2, MOPAC and CONFLEX calculations, and CD analyses. The imide/amide sector rule was proposed from the analyses of CD data of 1 and other indolocarbazole antibiotics. It was concluded that the minor compound 2 has a negative atropisomeric chirality in the aglycone.

High incorporation of D-[U-13C] glucose and L-[indole-2-13C] tryptophan into indocarbazostatin B (2) was observed in a biosynthetic study using a mutant strain, Streptomyces sp. MUV-7-8. The original strain, Streptomyces sp. TA-0403 produced a small amount of indocarbazostatin (1) and indocarbazostatin B (2), which displayed potent biological activities. To facilitate biosynthetic studies, we selected high indocarbazostatin producing mutant strains. The first mutants, Streptomyces sp. MUV-6-83 and MUV-6-17, produced indocarbazostatins C (3) and D (4) as well as 1 and 2. When the production medium was supplemented with D-tryptophan, the MUV-6-17 mutant produced K252c (5), whereas when L-tryptophan was added, it produced K252d (6). On further UV treatment of the mutant strain MUV-6-83, we finally obtained a new mutant producer, Streptomyces sp. MUV-7-8, that produced 2 as a major metabolite with higher productivity. This mutant producer enabled us to do a feeding experiment of the envisioned precursors, glucose and tryptophan.

Indocarbazostatins C (3) and D (4), new inhibitors of NGF-induced neurite outgrowth were isolated from culture broth of a mutant strain, Streptomyces sp. MUV-6-83. The structural elucidation of 3 and 4 revealed that these inhibitors were methyl ester analogs of the corresponding ethyl ester compounds, indocarbazostatin (1) and indocarbazostatin B (2), respectively.