Metabolite profiling and biological activities of bioactive compounds produced by Chrysosporium lobatum strain BK-3 isolated from Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India

In an ongoing survey for bioactive potential of microorganisms from different biosphere zones of India, a new Chrysosporium lobatum strain BK-3 was isolated from soil sample collected from a biodiversity hotspot, Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India. Bioactivity-guided purification resulted in the isolation of two bioactive compounds whose chemical structures were elucidated by (1)H and (13)C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), 2D-NMR, Fourier Transform Infra-red (FT-IR) and mass spectroscopic techniques, and were identified as α, β-dehydrocurvularin and curvularin. Only curvularin exhibited 80% acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity. Detailed ligand receptor binding interactions were studied for curvularin by molecular docking studies. Further, both curvularin and α, β-dehydrocurvularin had similar level of cytotoxicity against different human tumour cell lines like A549, HeLa, MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7, while α, β-dehydrocurvularin was active against COLO 205 with a IC50 of 7.9 μM, but curvularin was inactive. α, β-Dehydrocurvularin also showed good superoxide anion scavenging activity with an EC50 value of 16.71 μg ml(-1). Hence, both these compounds exhibited differences in bioactive profiles and this was probably associated with their minor structural differences. This is a first report on bioactive compounds exhibiting AChE inhibitory, cytotoxicity and antioxidant activities from Chrysosporium lobatum strain BK-3.