Planta Med 2009; 75(3): 227-229
DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1112196
Pharmacology
Letter
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Cytotoxicity and Phytotoxicity of Trichothecene Macrolides from Myrothecium gramminum

Hui Ming Ge1 , Rui Hua Jiao1 , Yu Fei Zhang1 , Jie Zhang1 , Yu Rong Wang1 , Ren Xiang Tan1
  • 1Institute of Functional Biomolecules, State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, P. R. China
Further Information

Publication History

Received: September 2, 2008 Revised: October 16, 2008

Accepted: October 27, 2008

Publication Date:
18 December 2008 (online)

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Abstract

1H-NMR guided fractionation of the EtOAc extract from the culture of Myrothecium gramminum (strain no. 3.1968) led to the isolation of eight cytotoxic trichothecene macrolides (1 – 8), all being substantially inhibitory against HepG2 (human hepatocellular carcinoma) and KB (human nasopharynyeal epidermoid tumor) cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 2.2 to 12.2 μg/mL. Their inactivity to or weaker action on Vero cells (IC50 values > 20 μg/mL, originated from the African green monkey kidney) highlighted preliminarily the nature of the selective cytotoxicity of the fungal metabolites against the test cancer cell lines. In addition, verrucarin A (1) and roridin A (5) were found to be potent inhibitors of the radial growth of Echinochloa crusgalli with corresponding IC50 values of (7.96 ± 0.31) × 10 – 6 and (9.18 ± 0.44) × 10 – 6 M, respectively, which were more potent than that of the positive control (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) [(9.40 ± 0.04) × 10 – 5 M].

References

Prof. Dr. R. X. Tan

Institute of Functional Biomolecules

State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

Nanjing University

Nanjing 210093

People’s Republic of R. China

Fax: +86-25-8330-2728

Email: rxtan@nju.edu.cn