Microorganisms are important sources for screening bioactive natural products. However, natural products from deep-sea microbes have not been extensively explored. In this study, the metabolites of bacteriophage GVE2 -infected (Geobacillus sp. E263 virus) thermophilic bacterium Geobacillus sp. E263, which was isolated from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent, were characterized. A novel quinoid compound, which had anti-tumor activity, was isolated from the phage-challenged thermophile. The chemical structure analysis showed that this novel quinoid compound was 2-amino-6-hydroxy-[1,4]-benzoquinone. The results indicated that 2-amino-6-hydroxy-[1,4]-benzoquinone and its two derivatives could trigger apoptosis of gastric cancer cells and breast cancer cells by inducing the accumulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species. Therefore, our study highlighted that the metabolites from the phage-challenged deep-sea microbes might be a kind of promising sources for anti-tumor drug discovery, because of the similarity of metabolic disorder between bacteriophage-infected microbes and tumor cells.
Keywords: anti-tumor; bacteriophage; benzoquinone; deep-sea hydrothermal vent; thermophile.