Four novel, rare carbon-bridged citrinin dimers, namely dicitrinones G–J (1–4), and five known analogs (5–9) were isolated from the starfish-derived fungus Penicillium sp. GGF 16-1-2. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis and quantum chemical calculations. Compounds 1–9 exhibited strong antifungal activities against Colletotrichum gloeosporioides with LD50 values from 0.61 μg/mL to 16.14 μg/mL. Meanwhile, all compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against human pancreatic cancer BXPC-3 and PANC-1 cell lines; as a result, compound 1 showed more significant cytotoxicities than the positive control against both cell lines. In addition, based on the analyses of the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and Western blot, 1 could induce apoptosis by activating caspase 3 proteins (CASP3).
γ‐Aromatic butenolides (γ‐AB) are an important type of structures found in many bioactive microbial secondary metabolites (SMs). γ‐AB refer to a group of natural products (NPs) containing five‐membered (unsaturated) lactones with 3‐phenyl and 4‐benzyl substituents. Their wide‐range biological activities have inspired pharmaceutical chemists to explore its biosynthesis mechanisms and design strategies to construct the γ‐AB skeleton. Recently, there are a great deal of interesting research progress on the structures, biological activities and biosynthesis of γ‐AB. This review will focus on these aspects and summarize the important achievements of γ‐AB from 1975 to 2021.
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