In vitro metabolism studies of natural products: microbial biotransformation of piplartine

Author(s)

Eduardo Afonso da Silva Junior

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Ribeirão Preto.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC)
• Defense date: 2013-03-25

Examining board members

Monica Tallarico Pupo; Maysa Furlan; Edson Rodrigues Filho

• Advisor: Monica Tallarico Pupo

Abstract

Piplartine is a natural alkaloid recognized by its biological properties, especially the anticancer activity. This natural product showed selective activity against several cancer cells lines, thus being considered a promising hit for drug development. Studies of bioactive natural products metabolism are an important and necessary step for the evaluation of their efficacy and safety. Microorganisms have been widely employed in metabolism studies, since they may catalyze chemo-, regio- and stereospecific reactions that are similar to human metabolism. This work aimed to study the microbial metabolism of piplartine by different fungal strains: the endophytes Penicillium crustosum VR4 and Papulaspora immersa SS13, the soil strain Mucor rouxii NRRL 1894, and the commercial collection strains Cunninghamella echinulata ATCC 8688a and Beauveria bassiana ATCC 7159. Biotransformation experiments were monitored by UPLC-DAD-MS and UPLC-DADMS/ MS. All the screened fungi were able to biotransform piplartine, and 14 compounds were identified as major biotransformation products in the small scale experiments. Piplartine and its derivatives showed characteristics fragmentations on ESI-MS/MS, which were explained using computer calculations. These fragmentation studies allowed the identification and structural proposition of piplartine metabolites. The fungi P. crustosum VR4 and B. bassiana ATCC 7159 were selected to perform the large scale biotransformation experiments, since they were capable to produce a large diversity of piplartine derivatives. Five compounds were isolated and identified by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HMQC, HMBC, COSY and HRESIMS data. The isolated products had never been previously identified by microbial biotransformation, and one of them was found to be novel in the literature. All the identified and isolated compounds have been produced by reactions similar to those that occur in phase I of human metabolism, such as reduction, hydroxylation and hydrolysis reactions. Thus, we can conclude that the microbial cultures are useful tools for preliminary metabolism studies, and to obtain chemical standards similar to those produced by human metabolism (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/01404-2 - In vitro metabolism studies of natural products: microbial biotransformation of piplartine
• Grantee: Eduardo Afonso da Silva Junior
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master