Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating motor disease with limited treatment options. A domestic fungal extract library was screened using three assays related to the pathophysiology of ALS with the aim of developing a novel ALS drug. 2(3H)-dihydrofuranolactones 1 and 2, and five known compounds 3–7 were isolated from Pleosporales sp. NUH322 culture media, and their protective activity against the excitotoxicity of β-N-oxalyl-L-α,β-diaminopropionic acid (ODAP), an α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)-type glutamatergic agonist, was evaluated under low mitochondrial glutathione levels induced by ethacrynic acid (EA) and low sulfur amino acids using our developed ODAP-EA assay. Additional assays evaluated the recovery from cytotoxicity caused by transfected SOD1-G93A, an ALS-causal gene, and the inhibitory effect against reactive oxygen species (ROS) elevation. The structures of 1 and 2 were elucidated using various spectroscopic methods. We synthesized 1 from D-ribose, and confirmed the absolute structure. Isolated and synthesized 1 displayed higher ODAP-EA activities than the extract and represented its activity. Furthermore, 1 exhibited protective activity against SOD1-G93A-induced toxicity. An ALS mouse model, SOD1-G93A, of both sexes, was treated orally with 1 at pre- and post-symptomatic stages. The latter treatment significantly extended their lifespan (p = 0.03) and delayed motor deterioration (p = 0.001–0.01). Our result suggests that 1 is a promising lead compound for the development of ALS drugs with a new spectrum of action targeting both SOD1-G93A proteopathy and excitotoxicity through its action on the AMPA-type glutamatergic receptor.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Mr. Masaki Watanabe, M.S., and Mr. Atsuhiro Suda, B.S., for their excellent assistance in obtaining and analyzing some of the in vitro data.
Funding
Part of this work was supported by A Grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology to promote 2001-multidisciplinary research projects (2007–2011), Nihon University Multidisciplinary Research Grant No. 12-021 and 13-023 (2012–2013), and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Kuniko Kusama No. 22590088 (2010–2012).
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KKE, YT, AM, YY, and KM contributed to collecting data in the screening of fungal extracts and other in vitro assays. KKE, YY, and YK contributed and analyzed the animal experiment data. DH and YO have established the fungal extracts library and identified NUH322 and other fungi listed in this report. YT, YY, MF, EO, MM, KM, and AO contributed to obtaining and analyzing the natural substances from Pleosporales sp. NUH322. MM contributed to the synthesis of compound 1. KW supervised the whole biological experiments.
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Kusama-Eguchi, K., Tokui, Y., Minoura, A. et al. 2(3H)-Dihydrofranolactone metabolites from Pleosporales sp. NUH322 as anti-amyotrophic lateral sclerosis drugs. J Nat Med 78, 146–159 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-023-01751-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-023-01751-5