Bioprospecção do fungo endofítico Hypoxylon investiens associado à alga marinha Asparagopsis taxiformis: potencial antifúngico, anticolinesterásico e antitumoral

The fungus Hypoxylon investiens occurs in terrestrial and aquatic environments, and most studies carried out so far on genus Hypoxylon refer to the terrestrial fungal strains. Many compounds and biological activities were determined for the genus and the present study is the first to carry out the bioprospection of H. investiens associated to marine algae. In this work, the chemical constituents produced by a fungal strain of H. investiens were investigated and some promising biological activities were evaluated (antifungal and cytotoxicity). The crude extract of the metabolites produced in PDB liquid medium by H. investiens was obtained in large scale and showed strong activity against the phytopathogenic fungi Cladosporium cladosporioides and C. sphaerospermum. It also showed inhibitory activity (75.7% of inhibition) on colon carcinoma tumor cell line HCT-116. Its fractionation by column chromatography over Sephadex LH-20 eluted with methanol afforded 6 fractions, (G1-G6). Fraction G4 showed strong antifungal activity against C. cladosporioides and C. sphaerospermum strains, in addition to high inibitory potential (97,3%,) towards tumor cells HTC-116. Fractions G5 and G6 were also active against tumor cell line HCT-116, showing 104,8% and 99,4% inhibition, respectively. Additionally, fraction G5 inhibited metastatic breast adenocarcinoma cell line MVF-7 whereas fractions G4 and G6 were inactive, which evidenced selectivity of such fractions towards the tested tumor cells lines. These results evidenced a high potential of production of bioactive metabolites by H. investiens. The chromatographic procedures led to the isolation of 14 compounds from fraction G5, 3 compounds from fraction G6 and 2 compounds from the non-active fraction G3. The preliminary analysis of the 17 isolated compounds from the bioactive fraction G5 and G6 by NMR spectroscopy indicated they are novel compounds structurally related to BNT (4,5,4',5'-tetrahydroxy-1,1'-BiNaphThyl). From those, three compounds were isolated from fraction G5 and had their carbon skeletons fully characterized and consistent with uni and bidimensional 1H and 13C NMR spectral data and high-resolution mass spectrometry. Additional experiments are being developed to determine the stereochemistry of asymmetric centers in the elucidated structures. Additionally, the non-active fraction G3 afforded high yield (304,5 mg from 605,4 mg of G3 fraction) of 3-nitropropanoic acid, a mitochondrial toxin wide spread among fungi and produced for their own defense. The results obtained were promising, pointing out the need for further in-depth investigations on the chemistry and biological properties of the fungus H. investiens. Such promising results evidence the outstanding chemodiversity of marine-derived fungi and highlight the bioactivity potencial of their extracts and fractions. They also point out the need for further studies of H. investiens chemistry and biological properties, which may contribute for the sustainable exploration of Brazilian marine biodiversity.