The Psymberin Story-Biological Properties and Approaches towards Total and Analogue Syntheses

• Published in: Angewandte Chemie International Edition Vol. 52; no. 42; pp. 10960 - 10985
• Main Authors: Bielitza, Max, Pietruszka, Jörg
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 11.10.2013; WILEY‐VCH Verlag; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Edition: International ed. in English
• Subjects: Animals; anticancer agent; Biological Products - chemistry; Biological properties; biosynthesis; Coumarins - chemical synthesis; Coumarins - chemistry; Humans; Marine Biology; Molecular Structure; natural products; Structure-Activity Relationship; structure-activity relationships; total synthesis; natural products; total synthesis; structure-activity relationships; anticancer agent; biosynthesis
• ISSN: 1433-7851; 1521-3773; 1521-3773
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.201301259

Psymberin is a marine natural product which has attracted a great deal of interest since its isolation: While the highly cytotoxic compound was detected early on as an ingredient in a marine sponge, it took over a decade and 600 additional samples for the structure to eventually be assigned. In the last eight years fascinating synthetic and biosynthetic investigations have led to a more detailed understanding as well as a new starting point for structure–activity studies towards new antitumor compounds. The Review gives an in‐depth insight into the progress in the field of the marine polyketide psymberin and demonstrates how organic synthesis is influencing neighboring scientific subjects. After its isolation from different sponges, the cytotoxic compound psymberin has drawn enormous attention in terms of its structure elucidation and (bio)synthesis because of its fascinating architecture and impressive biological properties. This endeavor resulted in an array of new synthetic strategies that also led to more potent analogues by altering different structural motifs.