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Identification of the protease inhibitor miraziridine A in the Red sea sponge Theonella swinhoei

1, 2, 3, 1,2, 4★★ Corresponding author

  1. 1University of Wuerzburg, Botany II, Julius-von-Sachs-Institute
  2. 2University of Wuerzburg
  3. 3University of Bielefeld, Chemistry
  4. 4Pharmacy and Food Chemistry, Würzburg, Germany, 4Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Mainz, Germany

CORRESPONDENCE

Tanja Schirmeister

Pharmacy and Food Chemistry, Würzburg, Germany

schirmei@uni-mainz.de

Volume 4, Issue 1 · pp. 63-72 · 2011 · DOI: 10.4103/0974-8490.91047

ABSTRACT

Miraziridine A, a natural peptide isolated from a marine sponge, is a potent cathepsin B inhibitor with a second-order rate constant of 1.5 x 104 M-1 s-1. In the present study, miraziridine A was isolated from the Red Sea sponge Theonella swinhoei on the basis of chromatographic and spectrometric techniques. We conclude that T. swinhoei from the Red Sea represents an alternative source of the aziridinylpeptide miraziridine A to the previously identified Theonella mirabilis from Japan. We confirmed that the metabolite is produced by marine sponges from different geographical locations. Marine sponges have been proven to be a rich source of secondary metabolites exhibiting a huge diversity of biological activities, including antimicrobial, antitumor and immunomodulatory activities. Theonella species (order Lithistida, Demospongiae) have been shown to be a source of anti-protease and anti-HIV secondary metabolites. To identify the protease inhibitor mirazirine A in the marine sponge Theonella swinhoei. The marine sponge Theonella swinhoei was collected by SCUBA diving in the Red Sea in Eilat (Israel). Sponge material was lyophilized and further extracted successively with cyclohexane, dichloromethane and methanol to obtain three crude extracts. LC-MS analysis was performed to confirm the presence of Miraziridine A in the dichloromethane fraction. In the present study, miraziridine A was isolated from the Red Sea sponge T. swinhoei on the basis of chromatographic and spectrophotometric techniques. We conclude that T. swinhoei from the Red Sea represents an alternative source of the aziridinylpeptide miraziridine A to the previously identified Theonella mirabilis from Japan.

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    Tabares, P., Degel, B., Schaschke, N., Hentschel, U., & Schirmeister, T. (2011). Identification of the protease inhibitor miraziridine A in the Red sea sponge Theonella swinhoei. Pharmacognosy Research, 4(1), 63-72. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-8490.91047

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    © 2011 Author(s)

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0