Antimicrobial activity and molecular docking studies of a novel anthraquinone from a marine-derived fungus Aspergillus versicolor

Abstract

A novel anthraquinone, 2-(dimethoxymethyl)-1-hydroxyanthracene-9,10-dione (1), together with nine known compounds (2–10), were isolated from the fermentation of Aspergillus versicolor derived from deep sea sediment. Their structures were established through spectroscopic methods. Compound 1 exhibited strong inhibitory activities against MRSA ATCC 43300 and MRSA CGMCC 1.12409 (with MIC values of 3.9 and 7.8 μg/mL respectively) and moderate activities against tested strains of Vibrio (with MIC values ranging from 15.6 to 62.5 μg/mL). Compound 1 was subjected to molecular docking studies for inhibition of topoisomerase IV and AmpC β-lactamase enzymes indicating its usefulness as antimicrobial agent.

Keywords:

• Aspergillus versicolor
• anthraquinone
• antibacterial

Acknowledgement

We feel grateful to Dr Zhuhua Luo for providing us with the fungus. At the same time, we would like to thank all the members of Jianming Chen’s group in Third Institute of Oceanography for their assistance in this work.