Mining the genome sequence of Burkholderia thailandensis MSMB43 revealed a cryptic biosynthetic gene cluster resembling that of FR901464 (4), a prototype spliceosome inhibitor produced by Pseudomonas sp. No. 2663. Transcriptional analysis revealed a cultivation condition in which a regulatory gene of the cryptic gene cluster is adequately expressed. Consequently, three new compounds, named thailanstatins A (1), B (2) and C (3), were isolated from the fermentation broth of B. thailandensis MSMB43. Thailanstatins are proposed to be biosynthesized by a hybrid polyketide synthase-nonribosomal peptide synthetase pathway. They differ from 4 by lacking an unstable hydroxyl group and by having an extra carboxyl moiety; those differences endow thailanstatins with a significantly greater stability than 4 as tested in phosphate buffer at pH 7.4. In vitro assays showed that thailanstatins inhibit pre-mRNA splicing as potently as 4, with half-maximal inhibitory concentrations in the single to sub µM range. Cell culture assays indicated that thailanstatins also possess potent antiproliferative activities in representative human cancer cell lines, with half-maximal growth inhibitory concentrations in the single nM range. This work provides new chemical entities for research and development, and new structure-activity information for chemical optimization of related spliceosome inhibitors.

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Thailanstatin A (TST-A) is a potent antiproliferative natural product discovered by our group from Burkholderia thailandensis MSMB43 through a genome-guided approach. The limited supply of TST-A, due to its low titer in bacterial fermentation, modest stability and very low recovery rate during purification, has hindered the investigations of TST-A as an anticancer drug candidate. Here we report the significant yield improvement of TST-A and its direct precursor, thailanstatin D (TST-D), through metabolic engineering of the thailanstatin biosynthetic pathway in MSMB43. Deletion of tstP, which encodes a dioxygenase involved in converting TST-A to downstream products including FR901464 (FR), resulted in 58% increase of the TST-A titer to 144.7 ± 2.3 mg/L and 132% increase of the TST-D titer to 14.6 ± 0.5 mg/L in the fermentation broth, respectively. Deletion of tstR, which encodes a cytochrome P450 involved in converting TST-D to TST-A, resulted in more than 7-fold increase of the TST-D titer to 53.2 ± 12.1 mg/L in the fermentation broth. An execution of 90 L pilot-scale fed-batch fermentation of the tstP deletion mutant in a 120-L fermentor led to the preparation of 714 mg of TST-A with greater than 98.5% purity. The half-life of TST-D in a phosphate buffer was found to be at least 202 h, significantly longer than that of TST-A or FR, suggesting superior stability. However, the IC50 values of TST-D against representative human cancer cell lines were determined to be greater than those of TST-A, indicating weaker antiproliferative activity. This work enabled us to prepare sufficient quantities of TST-A and TST-D for our ongoing translational research.

Natural products have been traditionally sought from actinomycetes, filamentous fungi and medicinal plants. Gram-negative bacterial species, such as Burkholderia, Chromobacterium, Lysobacter, Pseudomonas and Xenorhabdus, however, have recently captured attention as new sources of diverse bioactive natural products. Mining the genome sequence of B. thailandensis MSMB43 revealed a cryptic biosynthetic gene cluster highly resembling that of FR901,464, a prototype pre-mRNA splicing inhibitor produced by Pseudomonas sp. No. 2663. Transcriptioal analysis identified a cultivation condition in which a representive gene of the cryptic gene cluster is adequately expressed. Consequently, three new compounds, thailanstatins A, B and C, were isolated from the fermentation broth of B. thailandensis MSMB43 through natural product chemistry. Thailanstatins belong to the FR901,464-family of microbial products biosynthesized by a hybrid polyketide synthease-nonribosomal peptide synthetase pathway. They have an oveall structural similarity with FR901,464, but feature an extra acetic acid unit which endows the compouds with a significantly higher stability than FR901,464 under physiologically relevant conditions. In vitro assays showed that thailanstatins inhibit pre-mRNA splicing as potently as FR901,464, with half-maximal inhibitory concentrations in the single to sub μM range, causing pre-mRNA to accumulate and preventing the production of mRNA and splicing intermediates. In vitro cell culture assays indicated that thailanstatins also possess potent antiproliferative activities in representative human cancer cell lines, with half-maximal growth inhibitory concentrations in the single nM range (Table 1). This work provides new chemical entities for research and development, and validates the Burkholderia species as an exciting new source of bioactive natural products. Table 1.Antiproliferative activities of compounds in human cancer cell lines (GI50 in nM).CompoundDU-145 (prostate cancer)H232A (non-small cell lung cancer)MDA-MB235 (triple-negative breast cancer)SKOV-3 (ovarian cancer)Thailanstatin A1.11±0.022.26±0.172.58±0.112.69±0.37Thailanstatin B3.00±0.922.50±0.066.22±1.674.94±1.76Thailanstatin C2.98±0.903.67±0.538.82±2.205.57±2.01FR901,4641.05±0.021.94±0.242.10±0.191.06±0.01 Citation Format: Xiangyang Liu, Sreya Biswas, Michael G. Berg, Christopher M. Antapli, Feng Xie, Qi Wang, Man-Cheng Tang, Gong-Li Tang, Lixin Zhang, Gideon Dreyfuss, Yi-Qiang Cheng. Thailanstatins: New pre-mRNA splicing inhibitors and potent antiproliferative agents discovered from Burkholderia Thailandensis MSMB43. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2257. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2257

Histone acetylation is a prominent epigenetic modification linked to the memory loss symptoms associated with neurodegenerative disease. The use of existing histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) drugs for treatment is precluded by their weak blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeability and undesirable toxicity. Here, we address these shortcomings by developing a new class of disulfide-based compounds, inspired by the scaffold of the FDA-approved HDACi romidepsin (FK288). Our findings indicate that our novel compound MJM-1 increases the overall level of histone 3 (H3) acetylation in a prostate cancer cell line. In mice, MJM-1 injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) crossed the BBB and could be detected in the hippocampus, a brain region that mediates memory. Consistent with this finding, we found that the post-training i.p. administration of MJM-1 enhanced hippocampus-dependent spatial memory consolidation in male mice. Therefore, MJM-1 represents a potential lead for further optimization as a therapeutic strategy for ameliorating cognitive deficits in aging and neurodegenerative diseases.