Curvularin derivatives from hydrothermal vent sediment fungus Penicillium sp. HL-50 guided by molecular networking and their anti-inflammatory activity

Guided by molecular networking, nine novel curvularin derivatives (1−9) and 16 known analogs (10−25) were isolated from the hydrothermal vent sediment fungus Penicillium sp. HL-50. Notably, compounds 5−7 represented a hybrid of curvularin and purine. The structures and absolute configurations of compounds 1−9 were elucidated via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations, ¹³C NMR calculation, modified Mosher’s method, and chemical derivatization. Investigation of anti-inflammatory activities revealed that compounds 7−9, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 18 exhibited significant suppressive effects against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in murine macrophage RAW264.7 cells, with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.44 to 4.40 μmol·L⁻¹. Furthermore, these bioactive compounds were found to suppress the expression of inflammation-related proteins, including inducible NO synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), NLR family pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3), and nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB). Additional studies demonstrated that the novel compound 7 possessed potent anti-inflammatory activity by inhibiting the transcription of inflammation-related genes, downregulating the expression of inflammation-related proteins, and inhibiting the release of inflammatory cytokines, indicating its potential application in the treatment of inflammatory diseases.