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Abstract: 10,11-Dehydrocurvularin is a natural benzenediol lactone (BDL) with a 12-membered macrolide fused to a resorcinol ring produced as a secondary metabolite by many fungi. In this review, we summarized the pieces of literature regarding biosynthesis, chemical synthesis, biological activities, and assumed work mechanisms of 10,11-dehydrocurvularin, which presented a potential for agricultural and pharmaceutical uses.

An exclusive asymmetric reduction of CO bonds of 2-arylidene four-, five-, six-, and seven-membered cycloalkanones has been studied systematically. The asymmetric transfer hydrogenation was performed using a robust and commercially available chiral diamine-derived ruthenium complex as a catalyst and HCOOH/Et3N as a hydrogen source under mild conditions, giving 51 examples of chiral exocyclic allylic alcohols in up to 96% yield and 99% ee. This method was also applicable to the gram-scale synthesis of the active intermediates of the anti-inflammatory loxoprofen and natural product (−)-goniomitine.

Cancer cells rely on fatty acid synthase (FASN), a key enzyme for de novo biosynthesis of long chain fatty acids, to sustain their proliferative potential and drive invasion. Unfortunately, conventional FASN assays are technically inadequate for discerning otherwise elusive FASN activity in complex biological milieux, which has hindered progress in the functional study of FASN and development of its inhibitors. Here, we describe a chemical probe with unprecedented selectivity and sensitivity for the labeling of active FASN in living cells, thus demonstrating a new analytical modality for visualizing endogenous FASN activity and exploring opportunities for drug discovery.

Selective profiling of steviol-catalyzing UDP-glycosyltransferases in plants was accomplished with a probe metabolically synthesized from two substrate-derived components comprising an alkynylated sugar receptor (steviol) module and a diazirine-modified sugar donor (UDP-glucose) module, thereby illustrating a facile approach for harnessing biosynthetic enzymes of natural glycosides in plants for synthetic biology.

Natural-product macrolide 10,11-dehydrocurvularin (DCV) was revealed to be a potent irreversible inhibitor of ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY) via classical chemoproteomic profiling, which mechanistically illuminates the anti-cancer mode of action of DCV and its analogues.

Hispolon was the main antitumor active ingredient in Phellinus sensu lato species. In order to confirm the dual regulating estrogenic ingredient and obtain more effective natural estrogen replacement drugs, hispolon was separated from Phellinus lonicerinus (Bond.) Bond. et sing. Hispolon exhibited significant anti-proliferative effect against estrogen-sensitive ER (+) MCF-7 cells in the absence of estrogen, and exhibits antagonistic effects on 17β-estradiol (E2)-induced MCF-7 cell proliferation when E2 and the different concentrations of hispolon were treated simultaneously. Hispolon also inhibited the proliferation of estrogen-negative ER (−) MDA-MB-231 cells at the concentration of 5.00 × 10− 5 M. The yeast two-hybrid experiments showed that hispolon had strong and non-selective effects on the estrogen receptor (ER) α and ERβ at a concentration of 1.00 × 10− 6 M. The ERβ-binding ability of hispolon was larger than ERα in the concentration range of 1.00 × 10− 9 M and 1.00 × 10− 7 M. Hispolon could increase the body weight coefficient, serum E2 and progesterone contents in immature female mice at dose of 9.10 × 10− 6 mol/kg, and increase coefficient of thymus and spleen in mice. The Gscores of hispolon-ERα and hispolon-ERβ docked complexes were − 7.93 kcal/mol and − 7.79 kcal/mol in docking simulations. Hispolon presented dual regulating estrogenic activities, which showed estrogenic agonist activity at low concentration or lack of endogenous estrogen, and the estrogenic antagonistic effect was stimulated at high concentrations or too much endogenous estrogen. Hispolon could be used for treating the estrogen deficiency-related disease with the benefit of non-toxic to normal cells, good antitumor effects and estrogenic activity.

A highly solid-emissive Boron–Fluorine scaffold with two conjugated alkyne groups ( BOPIM-S ) is facilely synthesized, which shows enhanced fluorescent intensity compared to the BOPIM dye without alkyne units. According to X-ray single crystal analysis, the terminal alkyne groups interact with atoms B, F, C and N on neighbouring molecules, producing a rigid rectangular structure, which helps to avoid energy loss via non-irradiative decay. Furthermore, BOPIM-S can undergo copper catalysed alkyne–azide-cycloaddition (CuAAC) chemistry with aromatic azides to produce conjugated molecules with high yields. According to absorption and fluorescent measurements, all these compounds synthesized by CuAAC emit large Stokes shift (over 100 nm) both in solution and in solid state. But the electronic environments of terminal aromatic rings slightly affect their photophysical properties.