Site-selective oxidation of unactivated C–H sp3 bonds of oleanane triterpenes by Streptomyces griseus ATCC 13273

Abstract

The oxidization of unactivated C–H bonds is of great interests in the structural modification of pentacyclic triterpenes. Herein we discovered the unique capability of Streptomyces griseus ATCC 13273 to catalyze the site-selective oxidation of C-29 methyl group to carboxyl group over a range of oleanane triterpenes, oleanolic acid (1), hederagenin (2), echinocystic acid (3), quillaic acid (4) and senegenin (5). Along with this reaction the hydroxylation on C-24 and C-21 were also discovered on some substrates. As a result, eight new compounds (1c, 2a∼5a and 2b∼4b) among the ten metabolites were isolated. The anti-inflammatory activities of these compounds were evaluated against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in RAW 264.7 macrophages, and the products with hydroxyl group on C-21 (1c, 2b and 5a) showed significantly enhanced activities with the IC50 values of 1.230, 0.078 and 0.015 μM, respectively. Thus S. griseus ATCC 13273 was further proved as a useful biocatalyst to expand the structural diversity of oleanane triterpenes for medicinal chemistry research.