Cytotoxic Furanosesquiterpenoids And Steroids From Ircinia Mutans Sponges

Context: Ircinia mutans Wilson (Irciniidae) is a sponge with antimicrobial and cytotoxic constituents.Objective: Our objective was to characterise the cytotoxic constituents of two seasonal collections of I. mutans.Materials and methods: The sponges were extracted in methanol-dichloromethane and their constituents were purified and characterised using column chromatography, GC-MS, 1 D and 2 D NMR. Anti-proliferative activities of the compounds, were evaluated using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) colorimetric assay (0.25-100 mu g/mL, 72 h) against leukaemia (MOLT-4), breast (MCF-7) and colon cancer (HT-29) human cells.Results: Three furanosesquiterpoids; furodysin (1), ent-furodysinin (2) and furoircin (3) and ten sterols were characterised in I. mutans, for the first time. Cholesterol (4), cholesta-5, 7-dien-3 beta-ol (5) and ergosterol (6) were determined in the sponge from the winter collections, while cholesta-5, 22-dien-3 beta-ol (7), 24-methyldesmosterol (8), campesterol (9), stigmasterol (10), gamma-ergostenol (11), chondrillasterol (12) and gamma-sitosterol (13) were detected in the summer samples. The steroids from the winter collection exhibited cytotoxic activity with IC50 values of 13.0 +/- 0.9, 11.1 +/- 1.7 and 1.1 +/- 0.4 mu g/mL, against the mentioned cancer cell lines, respectively, while those from the summer sample, showed greater activity, IC50 = 1.1 +/- 0.2 mu g/mL against MOLT-4. The purified steroids showed potent MOLT-4 cytotoxic activity, IC50 values = 2.3-7.8 mu g/mL.Discussion and conclusion: The present study suggests that I. mutans is a rich source of cytotoxic steroids, and introduces 3 as new natural product. Considering the high cytotoxic activity of the steroids, these structures could be candidates for anticancer drug development in future research.