Toad Alkaloid for Pesticide Discovery: Dehydrobufotenine Derivatives as Novel Agents against Plant Virus and Fungi

Plant viruses and fungi are a serious threat to food security and natural ecosystems. The efficient and environment-friendly control methods are urgently needed to help safeguard such resources. Here, we achieved the efficient synthesis of toad alkaloid dehydrobufotenine in eight steps with an overall yield of 8% from 5-methoxyindole. A series of dehydrobufotenine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their antiviral and fungicidal activities systematically. It was found for the first time that these compounds have good anti-plant virus activities and anti-plant pathogen activities. The antiviral activities of 21 compounds were similar to or better than those of ribavirin. Compounds 12 and 17 displayed better antiviral activities than ningnanmycin which is perhaps the most effective anti-plant virus agent. The antiviral mechanism research study of 12 revealed that it could make 20S CP disk fusion and aggregation. Further molecular docking results showed that there are hydrogen bonds between compounds 12, 17, and tobacco mosaic virus CP. The docking results are consistent with the antiviral activity. These compounds also displayed broad-spectrum fungicidal activities against 14 kinds of fungi, especially for Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. In this work, the synthesis, structure optimization, structure–activity relationship studies, and mode of action research of dehydrobufotenine alkaloids were carried out. It provides a reference for the development of the anti-plant virus agent and anti-plant pathogen agent from toad alkaloids.