Marine Natural Products for Drug Discovery: First Discovery of Kealiinines A-C and Their Derivatives as Novel Antiviral and Antiphytopathogenic Fungus Agents.

Leucetta alkaloid kealiinines A-C and kealiinine B derivatives were designed, synthesized, and characterized on the basis of NMR and HR-MS. The anti-TMV and antiphytopathogenic fungus activities of these alkaloids were evaluated for the first time. Kealiinine B exhibited a higher anti-TMV activity than kealiinines A and C. Kealiinine B derivatives 2m (inhibitory rates: 68, 66, and 71% at 500 μg/mL for inactivation, curative, and protection activity in vivo, respectively) and 2y (inhibitory rates: 69, 64, and 63% at 500 μg/mL for inactivation, curative, and protection activity in vivo, respectively) showed significantly higher antiviral activity than ningnanmycin (inhibitory rates: 56, 56, and 58% at 500 μg/mL for inactivation, curative, and protection activity in vivo, respectively), thus emerging as new lead compounds for novel antiviral agent development. Structure-activity relationship research provided the basis for structural simplification of these alkaloids. Further fungicidal activity tests revealed that these alkaloids displayed broad-spectrum fungicidal activities. Compounds 2i and 2p displayed good fungicidal activities in vitro against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Rhizoctonia cerealis with inhibition rates of 71%/50 mg/kg and 70%/50 mg/kg, respectively.