Trichoderma species are free-living fungi that are highly interactive in root, soil and foliar environments and have been used successfully in field trials to control many crop pathogens. Structural and biological studies of the metabolites isolated from Trichoderma species are reviewed. This review, encompassing all the literature in this field up to the present and in which 269 references are cited, also includes a detailed study of the biological activity of the metabolites, especially the role of these metabolites in biological control mechanisms. Some aspects of the biosynthesis of these metabolites and related compounds are likewise discussed.

An efficient, one-pot synthesis of angular and linear dihydropyranocoumarins, along with C-6 and C-8 prenylated coumarins is reported. These compounds, together with single- and furanocoumarins, were tested for their potential antifungal activity against the phytopathogen Botrytis cinerea Pers ex Fr. The results show that furanocoumarins may be able to control the fungus B cinerea.

Background:Neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders frequently occur after brain insults associated with neuronal loss. Strategies aimed to facilitate neuronal renewal by promoting neurogenesis constitute a promising therapeutic option to treat neuronal death-associated disorders. In the adult brain, generation of new neurons occurs physiologically throughout the entire life controlled by extracellular molecules coupled to intracellular signaling cascades. Proteins participating in these cascades within neurogenic regions constitute potential pharmacological targets to promote neuronal regeneration of injured areas of the central nervous system.Methodology:We have performed in vitro and in vivo approaches to determine neural progenitor cell proliferation to understand whether activation of kinases of the protein kinase C family facilitates neurogenesis in the adult brain.Results:We have demonstrated that protein kinase C activation by phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate induces neural progenitor cell proliferation in vitro. We also show that the nontumorogenic protein kinase C activator prostratin exerts a proliferative effect on neural progenitor cells in vitro. This effect can be reverted by addition of the protein kinase C inhibitor G06850, demonstrating that the effect of prostratin is mediated by protein kinase C activation. Additionally, we show that prostratin treatment in vivo induces proliferation of neural progenitor cells within the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and the subventricular zone. Finally, we describe a library of diterpenes with a 12-deoxyphorbol structure similar to that of prostratin that induces a stronger effect than prostratin on neural progenitor cell proliferation both in vitro and in vivo.Conclusions:This work suggests that protein kinase C activation is a promising strategy to expand the endogenous neural progenitor cell population to promote neurogenesis and highlights the potential of 12-deoxyphorbols as pharmaceutical agents to facilitate neuronal renewal.

We propose lathyranes like ELAC as new drug candidates to modulate adult neurogenesis through PKC activation. Functional and structural comparisons between ELAC and phorboids are included.

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Covering: 1973 to 2013. The biological activities of tigliane, lathyrane, ingenane, casbane, jatropholane and premyrsinane diterpenoids which contain the gem-dimethylcyclopropyl unit are described. Particular attention is given to their anti-viral, anti-microbial and cytotoxic activities. In the main text there are 132 references. The electronic supplementary information contains tables listing 424 of these diterpenoids, their occurrence and biological activity together with the references.

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