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A new class of dimeric product isolated from the fungus Chaetomium globosum: evaluation of chemical structure and biological activity

Abstract

Chaetomium globosum is a filamentous fungus from which we have previously isolated a series of interesting natural products. Here, we isolated a previously unknown natural product from the culture of C. globosum. Through spectroscopic and crystallographic characterization, we determined the compound to be a new dimerized azaphilone-type product which we termed cochliodone J (1). Furthermore, our investigation into the biological activity of the natural product determined that 1 was cytotoxic to human cervix carcinoma HeLa cells with an IC50 of 17.3 µM. Lastly, a plausible biosynthetic mechanism for 1 is suggested based on our previous study on the biosynthesis of a closely related compound, cochliodone A (2).

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the financial support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (KW, 16H06449; 19H02898; 19K22291; 19KK0150. MS, 19K07136), the Takeda Science Foundation (KW), the Institution of Fermentation at Osaka (K.W.), the Japan Antibiotics Research Association (KW), the Uehara Memorial Foundation (KW) and the HOKUTO Bio-chemical Research Foundation (KW).

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Correspondence to Kenji Watanabe.

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Sarmales-Murga, C., Akaoka, F., Sato, M. et al. A new class of dimeric product isolated from the fungus Chaetomium globosum: evaluation of chemical structure and biological activity. J Antibiot 73, 320–323 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41429-020-0281-x

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