Guided Isolation of An Uncommon Cembranoid Orthoester, Sarcotortin A, and Three Skeletal Diverse Terpenoids from the Hainan Soft Coral Sarcophyton tortuosum Based on Molecular Networking Strategy.

Abstract

Applying the emerging molecular networking strategy, an uncommon cembranoid orthoester, sarcotortin A (1), featuring a 3/14/8/5-fused scaffold, an unusual eunicellane-type diterpenoid, sarcotorolide A (2), and two new biscembranoids, ximaolides M and N (7 and 8), along with nine known terpenoids 3-6 and 9-13 were isolated from the Hainan soft coral Sarcophyton tortuosum. The structure and absolute configuration of all new compounds were established by a combination of spectroscopic data, X-ray diffraction analysis, and/or quantum chemical computational approaches. The plausible biogenetic relationship among these skeletally different terpenoids was proposed and discussed. In in vitro bioassay, new compound 7 exhibited a remarkable inhibitory activity against protein tyrosine phosphatases 1B (PTP1B) with the IC50 value of 8.06 μM. In addition, compounds 4 and 10 displayed significant inhibitory effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory responses in RAW264.7 macrophages cells with the IC50 values of 19.13 and 16.45 μM, respectively. Compound 9 showed interesting cytotoxicity against H1975, MDA-MB231, A549, and H1299 cancer cell lines with IC50 values of 31.59, 34.96, 43.87, and 27.93 μM, respectively.