Rui-Hua Jiao

Enhanced production of fumigaclavine C by ultrasound stimulation in a two-stage culture of Aspergillus fumigatus CY018

Stimulation by physical means including ultrasound is important to cell morphology and the product yield. In this work, the effect of ultrasound on the production of fumigaclavine C (FC), a conidiation-associated alkaloid with strong anti-inflammatory activity, was investigated in a newly developed two-stage culture of Aspergillus fumigatus CY018. The optimum ultrasonication conditions consisted of exposing cultures (at 12h of growth phase) to 10-min repeated irradiation (4 times) with a 24-h interval at the fixed power (500 W). Under this condition, FC production reached 118.09 mg/L, which was 89% higher than the control and much higher than previous reported values. Morphological analysis demonstrated that mycelia morphology from ultrasonication was in the form smaller and looser pellets as compared to that of the control. In addition, conidia that is closely related to FC biosynthesis were significantly increased after ultrasound stimulation, with 3 folds of that from the control.

Enhanced production of Fumigaclavine C in liquid culture of Aspergillus fumigatus under a two-stage process

Fumigaclavine C (FC) produced by Aspergillus fumigatus is a conidiation associated ergot alkaloid with strong anti-inflammatory activity. However, its wide application has been severely limited by low FC production from submerged culture. In this work, a novel two-stage culture process by combining shake culture with static culture was proposed to enhance the production of FC. After the process optimization, the FC production reached 62.7 mg/L, which was significantly higher than ever report. For scaling up this new culture process, the gas-liquid interfacial area per unit volume (Agas-liq) was identified as the key factor. The results showed that in a combined stirred-static bioreactor system, a maximum FC production (58.97 mg/L) was obtained at an Agas-liq value of 1.30 cm(2)/mL. These results demonstrated that two-stage culture is an efficient strategy to enhance FC production and the information obtained will be useful to production of this powerful bioactive compound on a large scale.

Adsorption characteristics and preparative separation of chaetominine from Aspergillus fumigatus mycelia by macroporous resin

Chaetominine (CHA) is a quinazolinone alkaloid with strong anti-cancer activity produced by Aspergillus fumigatus CY018. For recovering CHA from A. fumigates efficiently, adsorption and desorption capacities of eight macroporous resins were tested in this work. Based on batch experiments, XAD-16 resin was revealed the best adsorption and desorption performance among all the tested resins. Then, adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms were constructed on XAD-16 resin, and the experimental data were fitted well to the pseudo first-order kinetics and Freundlick isotherm model. In the dynamic adsorption and desorption, the purity of CHA increased from 0.0314% (w/w) in the crude extract to 57.86% in the final product with recovery yield of 70.56% by a one-step treatment. Moreover, the experiments were also performed in a lab scale-up scale, in which the purity and recovery of CHA were 56.12% (w/w) and 68.02%, respectively. In addition, XAD-16 resin could be recycled 3 times for CHA separation after regeneration without adverse effects on adsorption/desorption performance. These results suggested that XAD-16 resin adsorption could act as a useful and economic method for recovering CHA from A. fumigatus.

Assessment of the Cytotoxic and Apoptotic Effects of Chaetominine in a Human Leukemia Cell Line

Chaetominine is a quinazoline alkaloid originating from the endophytic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus CY018. In this study, we showed evidence that chaetominine has cytotoxic and apoptotic effects on human leukemia K562 cells and investigated the pathway involved in chaetominine-induced apoptosis in detail. Chaetominine inhibited K562 cell growth, with an IC50 value of 35 nM, but showed little inhibitory effect on the growth of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The high apoptosis rates, morphological apoptotic features, and DNA fragmentation caused by chaetominine indicated that the cytotoxicity was partially caused by its pro-apoptotic effect. Under chaetominine treatment, the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was upregulated (from 0.3 to 8), which was followed by a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential, release of cytochrome c from mitochondria into the cytosol, and stimulation of Apaf-1. Furthermore, activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3, which are the main executers of the apoptotic process, was observed. These results demonstrated that chaetominine induced cell apoptosis via the mitochondrial pathway. Chaetominine inhibited K562 cell growth and induced apoptotic cell death through the intrinsic pathway, which suggests that chaetominine might be a promising therapeutic for leukemia.

Neuraminidase inhibitors from marine-derived actinomycete Streptomyces seoulensis.

This work was performed to characterize new secondary metabolites with neuraminidase (NA) inhibitory activity from marine actinomycete strains.

Fumigaclavine C ameliorates dextran sulfate sodium-induced murine experimental colitis via NLRP3 inflammasome inhibition

In the present study, the effect of Fumigaclavine C, a fungal metabolite, on murine experimental colitis induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) and its possible mechanism were examined in vivo and vitro. Oral administration of Fumigaclavine C dose-dependently attenuated the loss of body weight and shortening of colon length induced by DSS. The disease activity index, histopathologic scores of musco was also significantly reduced by Fumigaclavine C treatment. Protein and mRNA levels of DSS-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines in colon, including TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-17A, were markedly suppressed by Fumigaclavine C. At the same time, decreased activation of caspase-1 in peritoneal macrophages was detected in Fumigaclavine C -treated mice which suggested that the NLRP3 inflammasome activation was suppressed. Furthermore, in the LPS plus ATP cell model, we found that Fumigaclavine C dose-dependent inhibited IL-1β release and caspase-1 activation. Taken together, our results demonstrate the ability of Fumigaclavine C to inhibit NLRP3 inflammasome activation and give some evidence for its potential use in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases.

Preparative separation and purification of fumigaclavine C from fermented mycelia of Aspergillus fumigatus CY018 by macroporous adsorption resin

In this work, the separation and purification of fumigaclavine C (FC), an ergot alkaloid with strong anti-inflammatory activity from fermented mycelia of Aspergillus fumigatus was systematically evaluated. Among the eight tested resins, the non-polar resin D101 displayed the best adsorption and desorption based on of static adsorption and desorption tests. Adsorption isotherms were constructed on D101 resin and fitted well to the Freundlich model. Dynamic adsorption and desorption tests on a column packed with D101 resin have been investigated for optimization of chromatographic parameters. Under optimized conditions, the contents of FC increased from 7.32% (w/w) in the crude extract to 67.54% in the final product with a recovery yield of 90.35% (w/w) via one run. Furthermore, a lab scale-up separation was carried out, in which the FC content and recovery yield were 65.83% and 90.13%, respectively. These results demonstrated that this adsorption-desorption strategy by using D101 resin was simple and efficient, thus showing potential for large scale purification and preparation of FC in the future.

Natural phenolic metabolites from endophytic Aspergillus sp. IFB-YXS with antimicrobial activity.

Prompted by the pressing necessity to conquer phytopathogenic infections, the antimicrobial compounds were characterized with bioassay-guided method from the ethanol extract derived from the solid-substrate fermentation of Aspergillus sp. IFB-YXS, an endophytic fungus residing in the apparently healthy leave of Ginkgo biloba L. The aim of this work was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity and mechanism(s) of these bioactive compounds against phytopathogens. Among the compounds, xanthoascin (1) is significantly inhibitory on the growth of the phytopathogenic bacterium Clavibacter michiganense subsp. Sepedonicus with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 0.31μg/ml, which is more potent than streptomycin (MIC 0.62μg/ml), an antimicrobial drug co-assayed herein as a positive reference. Moreover, terphenyl derivatives 3, 5 and 6 are also found to be active against other phytopathogens including Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae Swings, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola Swings, Erwinia amylovora and Pseudomonas syringae pv. lachrymans etc. The antibacterial mechanism of xanthoascin (1) was addressed to change the cellular permeability of the phytopathogens, leading to the remarkable leakage of nucleic acids out of the cytomembrane. The work highlights the possibility that xanthoascin (1), an analogue of xanthocillin which is used to be an approved antibiotic, may find its renewed application as a potent antibacterial agrichemical. This study contributes to the development of new antimicrobial drugs, especially against C. michiganense subsp. Sepedonicus.

New tricycloalternarenes from fungus Alternaria sp.

Two new tricycloalternarenes I (1) and J (2), together with five known derivatives (3–7), were isolated from the culture of marine fungus Alternaria sp. The structures were elucidated by a combination of spectroscopic approach (1H, 13C NMR, HMBC, COSY, and NOESY) and the low-temperature (100 K) single-crystal X-ray crystallography analysis. The antimicrobial assays of tricycloalternarenes I (1) and J (2) were tested.

Fully substituted unsaturated lactones from endophytic Myrothecium sp.

Two new α,β-unsaturated γ-lactones, myrolactones A (1) and B (2), were characterized from the culture broth of the Myrothecium sp. IFB-E106 isolated from the roots of Vatica mangachapoi Blauco. The absolute configuration was determined by the computational electronic circular dichroism approach. Myolactone B showed neuraminidase inhibitory activity with the IC50 value of 13.95 μM.