Three pairs of variecolortide enantiomers from Eurotium sp. with caspase-3 inhibitory activity

7-O-methylvariecolortide A (1), variecolortide B (2), and variecolortide C (3), the rare variecolortides existing in racemic manner, were isolated from an endolichenic fungal strain Eurotium sp. (No. 17-11-8-1). With the chiral HPLC technology, (−)-(S)-7-O-methylvariecolortide A (1a), (+)-(R)-7-O-methylvariecolortide A (1b), (−)-(S)-variecolortide B (2a), (+)-(R)-variecolortide B (2b), (−)-(S)-variecolortide C (3a), and (+)-(R)-variecolortide C (3b) were successfully separated and obtained. Their absolute configurations were firstly assigned by ECD experiment and ECD calculation. According to the relation of isolated compounds, a plausible biosynthetic pathway for variecolortides was proposed. In caspase-3 enzymatic assay, compounds 1–3 showed inhibitory activity, with IC50 values of 1.7, 0.8 and 15.7 μM, respectively.

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