Purification and Structure Determination of Antifungal Phospholipids from a Marine Streptomyces

A series of antifungal compounds were obtained from the methanol extract of the mycelium from marine actinomycetes M428 which was identified as a Stereptomyces species by fatty acid composition and biochemical characteristics. These compounds were purified by combined chromatographic techniques and the structures were characterized with spectroscopic methods including 1D and 2D NMR, and mass spectrometry as sn-l lysophosphatidyl inositols. The side chains were established by chemical degradation followed by GC analysis to be 14-methyl pentadecanoic acid (iso-palmitic acid, i-C16:0, compound A) and 13-methyl tetradecanoic acid (iso-pentadecanoic acid, i-C15:0, compound B). These compounds displayed highly selective antifungal activity against C. albicans with MIC values of $5{\;}\mu\textrm{g}/ml$ (compound A) and $2.5{\;}\mu\textrm{g}/ml$ (compound B), while it had almost negligible antibiotic activity against E. coli and P aerogenosa with MIC value higher than $50{\;}\mu\textrm{g}/ml$ and no cytotoxic activities against human myeloma leukemia K562 ($IC_{50}>100{\;}\mu\textrm{g}/ml$).