The ethyl acetate extract of an ISP-2 agar cultivation of the wasp nest-associated fungus Penicillium sp. CMB-MD14 exhibited promising antibacterial activity against vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), with a bioassay guided chemical investigation yielding the new meroterpene, oxandrastin A (1), the first andrastin-like metabolite with an extra oxygenation at C-2. A culture media optimisation strategy informed a scaled-up rice cultivation that yielded 1, together with three new oxandrastins B-D (2-4), two known andrastins C (5) and F (6), and a new meroterpene of the austalide family, isoaustalide F (7). Structures of 1-7 were assigned based on detailed spectroscopic analysis and chemical interconversion. A GNPS molecular networking analysis of the rice cultivation extract detected the known austalides B (8), H (9), and H acid (10), tentatively identified based on molecular formulae and co-clustering with 7. That the anti-VRE properties of the CMB-MD14 extract were exclusively attributed to 1 (IC50 6.0 µM, MIC99 13.9 µM), highlights the importance of the 2-OAc and 3-OAc moieties to the oxandrastin anti-VRE pharmacophore.
Keywords: Penicillium sp. CMB-MD14; antibacterial; austalides; bioassay guided investigation; meroterpenoids; oxandrastins; vancomycin-resistant enterococci; wasp nest-associated fungi.