Recent Advances on the Synthesis, Biological Activity of Fungal Metabolites and Their Relation with Absolute Configuration
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Bioactives and Nutraceuticals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2024) | Viewed by 371
Special Issue Editors
Interests: natural bioactive substances; spectroscopy; isolation; structure determination; structure–activity relationships; mode of action
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Among natural organisms, fungi are one of the main sources of secondary metabolites with a variety of biological activities, e.g., phytotoxic, nematocidal, insecticidal, antibiotic, antifungal, antivirus, or anticancer. Thus, they could have potential application in agriculture as biopesticides (herbicides, fungicides, bactericides, insecticides, nematocidal) and in medicine (antibiotic, anti-Alzheimer’s disease, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antiviral, etc.). Fungal metabolites have the advantage that they are ecofriendly, frequently lacking toxicity towards humans and animals and decomposing in a brief time. The probability to isolate fungal metabolites with new carbon skeletons is high due to the so-called “high fantasy” the producer possesses. This is a very important feature to overcome the resistance developed by pests in agriculture and agents responsible for some severe human diseases (see the anticancer case, for example, or the emergency caused by MRSA bacteria). Unfortunately, these useful metabolites are often produced in a very low amount, and a complex process of purification needs to be applied to acquire them in pure form. These quantities are not sufficient for the different steps to test their biological activity and formulations required for their practical application. Thus, the only solution is the development of a convenient, ecofriendly, and simple enantioselective synthetic strategy. This process can only be developed if the bioactive metabolite has preliminarily been assigned with absolute configuration (AC) using different physic methods available today, as AC is strictly related to biological activity. Knowledge of the structure and AC also allows us to carry out chemical modification of the parent compound to modulate its biological activity to increase efficacy and selectivity and facilitate its formulation.
Prof. Dr. Antonio Evidente
Prof. Dr. Stefano Superchi
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- fungi
- secondary metabolites
- chemical and biological characterization
- absolute configuration
- synthesis
- SAR studies
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