A systematic structure-activity relationship study of the potent anticancer marine macrolide biselyngbyolide B has been accomplished. A total of 11 structural variants of the parent natural product, of which 2 are natural analogues, have been studied against a human colorectal carcinoma cell line. The requisite functional units of the parent molecule responsible for the cytotoxic activities have been disclosed. Biselyngbyolide C, one of the natural analogues of biselyngbyolide B, has been studied in depth to explore its molecular mechanism. Interestingly, the in vitro data demonstrated an induction of dynamin-related protein 1-mediated mitochondrial fission and reactive oxygen species production which led to activation of ASK1/P38/JNK-mediated apoptosis in colon cancer cells as an important pathway for biselyngbyolide B-mediated cytotoxicity. Notably, this study revealed that a macrolide participated in mitochondrial fission to promote apoptosis of cancer cells, providing new insight.
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