Naphthablin

HeLa cell-based cytological profiling (CP) was applied to an extract library of marine sediment-derived actinomycetes to discover new cytotoxic secondary metabolites. Among the hit strains, Streptomyces sp. CP26-58 was selected for further investigation to identify its cytotoxic metabolites. CP revealed that the known ionophore tetronasin (1) was responsible for the cytotoxic effect found in the extract. Furthermore, three naphthoquinone meroterpenoids, naphthablin A (2) and two new derivatives designated as naphthablins B (3) and C (4), were isolated from other cytotoxic fractions. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated based on analysis of their HRESIMS and comprehensive NMR data. The absolute configurations of the new compounds were deduced by simulating ECD spectra and calculating potential energies for the model compounds using density function theory (DFT) calculations. Compound 1 showed a significant cytotoxic effect against HeLa cells with an IC50 value of 0.23 μM, and CP successfully clustered 1 with calcium ionophores.

In the course of our screening for inhibitors of abl oncogene function, a culture filtrate of Streptomyces aculeolatus, induced normal flat morphology in v-abl-expressing NIH3T3 cells. The active substance was isolated through ethyl acetate extraction, silica gel column chromatography, and reverse-phase HPLC. Mass and NMR spectroscopy including HMBC revealed that it had a novel naphthoquinone structure with a monoterpene, and we named it "naphthablin". Naphthablin inhibited Abl-induced morphological transformation in v-ablts-NIH3T3 cells at around 30 micrograms/ml, and specifically inhibited RNA synthesis.