Convolutamines I and J, antitrypanosomal alkaloids from the bryozoan Amathia tortusa

Mass-directed isolation of the CH2Cl2/CH3OH extract from the marine bryozoan Amathia tortusa resulted in the purification of two new brominated alkaloids, convolutamines I (1) and J (2). The structures of 1 and 2 were determined following spectroscopic data analysis. Both compounds were isolated during a drug discovery program aimed at identifying new antitrypanosomal leads from a prefractionated natural product library. Compounds 1 and 2 were shown to be active toward the parasite Trypanosoma brucei brucei with IC50 values of 1.1 and 13.7 μM, respectively. Preliminary toxicity profiling was also performed on both 1 and 2 using the human embryonic kidney cell line, HEK293. Compound 1 was shown to exhibit cytotoxicity against HEK293 with an IC50 of 22.0 μM whilst 2 was inactive at 41.0 μM.