• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제24권2호
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• pp.147-155
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• 2016

Chaetominine is a quinazoline alkaloid originating from the endophytic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus CY018. In this study, we showed evidence that chaetominine has cytotoxic and apoptotic effects on human leukemia K562 cells and investigated the pathway involved in chaetominine-induced apoptosis in detail. Chaetominine inhibited K562 cell growth, with an $IC_{50}$ value of 35 nM, but showed little inhibitory effect on the growth of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The high apoptosis rates, morphological apoptotic features, and DNA fragmentation caused by chaetominine indicated that the cytotoxicity was partially caused by its pro-apoptotic effect. Under chaetominine treatment, the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was upregulated (from 0.3 to 8), which was followed by a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential, release of cytochrome c from mitochondria into the cytosol, and stimulation of Apaf-1. Furthermore, activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3, which are the main executers of the apoptotic process, was observed. These results demonstrated that chaetominine induced cell apoptosis via the mitochondrial pathway. Chaetominine inhibited K562 cell growth and induced apoptotic cell death through the intrinsic pathway, which suggests that chaetominine might be a promising therapeutic for leukemia.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.587-595
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• 2019

Pharmacological research on (CHA), a marine-derived quinazolinone alkaloid with significant cytotoxic activity, is restricted by low yields and is a problem that needs to be settled urgently. In this work, the selection of additional nitrogen sources and the optimization of additional concentrations and longer fermentation times using ammonium acetate, were investigated. CHA production was optimized to 62.1 mg/l with the addition of 50 mM ammonium acetate at 120 h of the fermentation in the shaker flask. This feeding strategy significantly increased 3-deoxy-arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate synthase activity and transcript levels of critical genes (laeA, dahp, and trpC) in the shikimate pathway compared with the non-treatment group. In addition, the selection of the feeding rate (0.01 and $0.03g/l{\cdot}h$) was investigated in a 5-L bioreactor. As a result, CHA production was increased by 57.9 mg/l with a $0.01g/l{\cdot}h$ ammonium acetate feeding rate. This work shows that the strategy of ammonium acetate supplementation had an effective role in improving CHA production by Aspergillus fumigatus CY018. It also shows that this strategy could serve as an important example of large-scale fermentation of a marine fungus in submerged culture.