A new cytotoxic steroid from co-fermentation of two marine alga-derived micro-organisms

Bioactivity-guided chemical investigation of a co-culture of marine-derived micro-organisms has yielded one new steroid, 7β-hydroxycholesterol-1β-carboxylic acid (1) with an unprecedented carboxylic acid group at C-1, together with three known steroidal metabolites (2–4). The chemical structures and stereochemistry of the isolated compounds were unambiguously determined based on extensive 1D, 2D NMR and HR-ESI-MS measurements. The isolated compounds were assessed for their cytotoxic activity against four different human tumour cell lines K562 (leukaemia), HCT116 (colon), A2780 (ovary) and its cisplatin-resistant mutant (A2780 CisR), and they revealed moderate activities with IC₅₀ values ranging from 10.0 to 100.0 μM.