Important Progress of Bioactive Metabolites Study from the South China Sea Invertebrates in SCSIO
Recently, Marine Natural Product Group, which is led by Professor Yonghong Liu, published paper on the bioactive secondary metabolisms of South China Sea gorgonian: “A novel cyclopentene derivative and a polyhydroxylated steroid from a South China Sea gorgonian Menella sp.” in the Journal “Chemical & Pharmaceutical Bulletin”. It was paid close attention by researchers in this area all over the world, and was cited by “Natural Product Report” (IF:9.202), the top Journal of the Natural Product Area, as “Hot Off the Press”. Menellin A from the gorgonian Menella sp. was selected as hot spot compound of 2010.(http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2010/NP/C0NP90026E)
In this paper, a chemical investigation on a South China Sea gorgonian, Menella sp. resulted in the isolation and elucidation of menellin A, a highly oxygenated racemate with C8 skeleton, and a polyhydroxylated steroid, menell steroid C, along with eight known compounds. The relative stereochemistry of 1 was determined by X-ray single-crystal diffraction analysis. In addition, compound 7 was isolated as a new natural product. 1 and 3 exhibited modest inhibitory effects against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitricoxide (NO) production in RAW264.7 macrophages with IC50 of 71.3, 33.9 mM, respectively, compared to the positive control aminoguanidine (IC50 25.0 mM).
The important area of research emphasis in Liu’s Group is the study of marine natural products of tropical marine invertebrates, which may have pharmaceutical applications for human health. With the financial support of the NSFC, Hundred Talents Project of the CAS, Knowledge Innovation Program of CAS, more than 600 marine natural products, including about 200 new compounds, were obtained and identified from several tropical marine invertebrates in Liu’s Group., such as sponges, sea stars, ascidians, corals, sea urchins, bryozoans, and so on. These compounds were tested for anti-tumor, anti-virus, anti-malarial, anti-HIV, antioxidant, antifouling activities, and more than 50 compounds showed different activities. Recent five years, more than 50 papers were published in SCI journals, such as Natural Product Reports, Food Chemistry, Tetrahedron, Helvetica Chimica Acta, Chemistry & Biodiversity.
