DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201200228
Precursor-Directed Syntheses and Biological Evaluation of
New Elansolid Derivatives
Heinrich Steinmetz,[a] Wiebke Zander,[a] Muftah A. M. Shushni,[a, b] Rolf Jansen,[a]
Klaus Gerth,[a] Richard Dehn,[c] Gerald Drꢀger,[c] Andreas Kirschning,[c] and Rolf Mꢁller*[a, d]
The antibiotic elansolid C1 (8) was isolated from Chitinophaga
sancti strain FxGBF13 after fermentation in the presence of an-
thranilic acid. Remarkably, 8 was also obtained by addition of
anthranilic acid to a crude fermentation extract containing the
macrolide elansolid A2 (1*). This Michael-type conjugate addi-
tion allowed us to generate 21 new derivatives of elansolid C1
(9–29) by using various nucleophiles. Biological activities of all
derivatives were evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus, Mi-
crococcus luteus, and the mouse cell line L929.
Recently, the first polyketide antibiotic from the gliding bacteri-
um Chitinophaga sancti (formerly Flexibacter sancti) was report-
ed as elansolid A (1). Remarkably, elansolid A (1) occurs as two
distinct atropisomers, A1 and A2 (1 and 1*), with a differently
folded macrolide ring.[1] During isolation of 1/1* from the fer-
mentation extracts, three ring-opened analogues, elansolids B1
to B3 (2–4), were isolated. The particular elansolid depended
on the work-up procedure employed.[2] In parallel with our
studies, Teta et al. investigated the biosynthesis of elansolids
based on the isolation of elansolid D2 (5) from Chitinophaga
pinensis DSM 2588.[3] Compound 5 was obtained along with
the work-up artifact elansolid D1 (6) under acidic conditions
with 0.1% TFA.[2] The molecular basis of elansolid biosynthesis
was finally explored by Dehn et al., after isolation and charac-
terization of the highly reactive p-quinone methide elansolid
A3 (7).[2,4] Interconversion studies demonstrated that all elan-
solid derivatives 1–6 could be traced back to the p-quinone
methide 7, thus explaining the large number of byproducts
observed as artifacts, depending on the work-up procedure.[2]
Interestingly, atropisomer 1 was less active against Gram-
positive bacteria than 1*, while the biological activity of 7 was
identical to that of 1*. Here, we report the isolation of another
antibiotic co-metabolite from precursor-targeted biosynthesis
after feeding anthranilic acid to the culture broth. This synthet-
ic strategy was extended to 21 elansolid derivatives that like-
wise originated from 7 in one step. The minimum inhibitory
concentrations (MICs) of all new elansolid derivatives 9–29
against Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus were deter-
mined, as well as their cytotoxicity against a mouse cell line.
elansolid C1. Thus, elansolid C1 8 was isolated from a 10 L fer-
mentation of C. sancti in a synthetic medium containing an-
thranilic acid. The adsorber resin Amberlite XAD 16 was added
on the sixth day of cultivation. After one hour of continued
stirring the resin was recovered by sieving and eluted with
acetone. Finally, 8 was isolated from the extract by RP-HPLC in
71 mg yield.
High resolution mass spectrometry of 8 revealed a molecular
formula of C44H54NO8 for the molecular ion cluster [MÀH]À at
m/z 724.3847 (calcd 724.3849). The NMR spectra recorded in
[D6]DMSO showed signals and correlations of the retained
carbon skeletons of elansolids B1–B3 (2–4) and those of an in-
corporated anthranilic acid moiety (Figure 1 and Table 1). The
bond between the anthranilic acid moiety and the elansolid
skeleton was indicated by COSY correlations between 25H and
the amino proton and by the upfield shift for C25 (56.9 ppm).
Because of the hindered rotation of the p-hydroxyl benzyl
moiety in 8, its NMR signals were very broad at room tempera-
[a] H. Steinmetz, W. Zander, M. A. M. Shushni, R. Jansen, K. Gerth, R. Mꢀller
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Research Group Microbial Drugs
Inhoffenstrasse 7, 38124 Braunschweig (Germany)
[b] M. A. M. Shushni
Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy
Garyounis University
P.O. Box 5341, Benghazi 18251 (Libya)
[c] R. Dehn, G. Drꢁger, A. Kirschning
Institut fꢀr Organische Chemie und Biomolekulares Wirkstoffzentrum
(BMWZ)
Leibniz Universitꢁt Hannover
Schneiderberg 1B, 30167 Hannover (Germany)
Results and Discussion
[d] R. Mꢀller
Initially, elansolid C1 (8) was detected as the main product in
shake-flask cultivations of C. sancti strain FxGBF13, when using
complex media containing different soy peptones, especially
the material from the Marcor Development Corporation (Hack-
ensack, USA), whereas in “synthetic medium” only elansolids A
and B were present. However, when synthetic medium was
supplemented with anthranilic acid, cultures also provided
Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research Saarland and Saarland University
Postfach 151150, 66041 Saarbrꢀcken (Germany)
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cbic.201200228: Characterization of the elansolid
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derivatives 9–29; H, 13C and H,13C HMQC NMR spectra of the elansolid de-
rivatives 8–29, as well as H,13C HMBC, H,1H COSY and H,1H ROESY of 8
1
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measured at RT and 334 K.
ChemBioChem 0000, 00, 1 – 6
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