6018
H. Wei et al. / Tetrahedron 60 (2004) 6015–6019
Table 3. Cytotoxic activity of ophiobolin K (8) against various cultured tumor cells
Compound
IC50 value (mM)
T-47D
MDA-MB-231
HOP18
NCI-H460
HCT116
ACHN
P388
P388/ADRa
Adriamycin
Ophiobolin K (8)
0.048
0.35
0.095
0.57
0.11
0.65
0.0061
0.57
0.055
0.33
0.048
0.27
0.012
0.51
2.56
0.36
a
Adriamycin-resistant cells.
stereochemistry at C-3, C-5, and C-6 of ophiobolin H (4)
was determined to be as depicted in Chart 1.
MG medium (malt extract: 20 g, glucose: 20 g, bact
peptone: 1 g, artificial seawater: 1000 mL) was used as
seed medium and liquid medium. Rice solid medium (rice:
25 g, artificial seawater: 50 mL, in a 500 mL flask), barley
solid medium (barley: 15 g, artificial seawater: 25 mL, in a
500 mL flask), soybean solid medium (soybean: 50 g,
artificial seawater: 75 mL, in a 500 mL flask), corn solid
medium (canned corn: 100 g, solid Aquamarine: 1.4 g,
liquid Aquamarine: l mL, in a 500 mL flask), and potato
solid medium (sliced fresh potato: 100 g, solid Aquamarine:
1.4 g, liquid Aquamarine: l mL, in a 500 mL flask) were
used as solid medium. They were all autoclaved before use.
The GF10 strain was cultured in the seed medium at 30 8C
for 5 days. Then, the broth of the strain was inoculated into
the production medium and cultured under static conditions
at 30 8C for 2 weeks. The culture of the MG medium was
filtered, and then the filtrate was partitioned with 2-buta-
none, and the residue was extracted with acetone. The
organic extracts were combined and evaporated under
reduced pressure to give an extract, which was further
partitioned into an EtOAc–H2O mixture. The EtOAc layer
was evaporated under reduced pressure to give an EtOAc
extract. For solid-state fermentation, the culture was
extracted with acetone and a mixed solvent (EtOAc–
MeOH–acetone, 1:2:4), and then the organic solvent was
combined and evaporated under reduced pressure to give an
extract. The extract was partitioned into an EtOAc–H2O
mixture, and the EtOAc layer was evaporated under reduced
pressure to afford an EtOAc extract.
The compounds obtained here are well correlated, and all
can be considered as congeners of ophiobolin A (9). The
stereochemistry at C-14 and C-15 and the absolute
stereostructure were deduced from those of ophiobolin
A,2,11 whose absolute stereostructure was determined by
X-ray crystallography of its bromo-methoxy derivative, and
ophiobolin C,9 of which asymmetric total synthesis has been
accomplished.
These compounds showed cytotoxicity against the neuro-
blastoma cell line, Neuro 2A. The treatment of 1–3 mM of
these compounds induced cell death accompanied by
shrinkage in cell soma and chromatin condensation at 12
or 24 h after drug application. Ophiobolin K (8) was further
tested with various cultured cell lines. As showed in Table 3,
8 showed seven times stronger cytotoxic activities against
P388/ADR tumor cells than adriamycin.
The liquid culture of the GF10 strain in the MG medium
produced ophiobolins in poor yield (0.1–0.6 mg/L for
compounds 1–4, 2–3 mg/L for compounds 5–8). On the
other hand, the culture in the solid-state medium based on
cereals produced ophioblins in higher yield. In the case of
the rice medium or soybean medium, 0.5–1.5 mg of 1–4
and 5–10 mg of 5–8 were produced in both 100 g medium,
while in the cases of the barley medium, corn medium, or
potato medium, 1–5 mg of 1–4 and 10–30 mg of 5–8 were
produced in each 100 g medium, respectively.
3.3. Isolation of ophiobolins (1–8)
The EtOAc extract (4.5 g) of the MG medium culture
(1 L£10) was fractionated by SiO2 column chromatography
(n-hexane–EtOAc) to give five fractions (A–E). The active
fraction C (70 mg) was further separated by reversed-phase
HPLC (Cosmosil 5C18-AR, 10£250 mm, MeOH–
H2O¼85:15) to furnish 6-epi-ophiobolin K (7, 12 mg),
ophiobolin K (8, 11 mg), 6-epi-ophiobolin C (5, 9 mg),
6-epi-ophiobolin G (1, 2 mg), 6-epi-ophiobolin C (6,
10 mg), and 6-epi-ophiobolin N (3, 3 mg). The purification
of the EtOAc extract (3.4 g) of the barley solid medium
culture (barley 40 g£20) by the same procedure gave
ophiobolin G (2, 15 mg), 6-epi-ophiobolin G (1, 9 mg),
ophiobolin H (4, 8 mg), and 6-epi-ophiobolin N (3, 9 mg).
For quantitative analyses, the EtOAc extracts were
fractionated by SiO2 column chromatography (n-hexane–
EtOAc) and the fractions containing ophiobolins were
analyzed by HPLC (Cosmosil 5C18-AR, 10£250 mm,
MeOH–H2O¼80:20, UV 230 nm).
3. Experimental
3.1. General experimental procedures
NMR spectra were recorded on a Varian Unity Inova 600
(600 MHz) spectrometer using the solvent peak as the
internal standard. Spots on TLC were detected by spraying
1% Ce(SO4)2/10% H2SO4 [1 g Ce(SO4)2, 100 mL 10% aq.
H2SO4] with subsequent heating. Artificial seawater was
prepared by Aquamarine (Yashima Pure Chemical Co.
LTD, Japan). Other instruments used to obtain physical data
and the experimental conditions for chromatography were
the same as in our previous paper.5
3.2. Fungus material, culture conditions, and extraction
The E. variecolor GF10 strain was separated from the
marine sediment collected from a depth at 70 m in Gokasyo
Gulf, Mie Prefecture, Japan, in 2002 and deposited in our
laboratory. The GF10 strain was classified as E. variecolor
from its cultural characteristics and 16S rDNA sequence.
3.3.1. 6-epi-Ophiobolin G (1). Amorphous powder;
[a]D23¼þ1178 (c 1.05, MeOH); IR (KBr) nmax cm21: 2965,
1705, 1680; UV (CHCl3) lmax (1): 228 nm (27000); 1H and