Production and derivatization of palitantin for the preparation of bioactive analogues

• Grant number: 19/27753-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2020
• End date: July 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Pharmacy - Pharmacognosy
• Principal Investigator: Roberto Gomes de Souza Berlinck
• Grantee: Flávio Alexandre Imamura
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química de São Carlos (IQSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Palitantine is a secondary metabolite originally isolated from culture media of the fungus Penicillium palitans, and is also produced by other fungal species. As the palitantine synthesis routes developed to date are multi-step, with yields of up to 45% and use generally expensive and environmentally harmful reagents, a fermentative palitantine production is a good alternative to obtain grams of this compound for the preparation of derivatives. Palitantine shows activity against Leishmania brasiliensis and Epicoccum nigrum, Ascochyta pisi, Fusarium solani, Monilinia laxa. In addition, palitantine demonstrated potent inhibitory activity of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, almost identical to that of the control substance (huperzine). Huperzine is a drug used to treat Alzheimer's disease, the most common type of neurodegenerative disease and has shown a significant increase in the number of cases over time. This project aims to produce grams of palitantine by fermentation and the preparation of synthetic derivatives for the evaluation of its biological activity against various pathogens (bacteria and fungi) and the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. (AU)