Bioactive sulfonyl metabolites from the Red Sea endophytic fungus Penicillium aculeatum

Two new sulfonyl metabolites, pensulfonoxy (1) and pensulfonamide (2), together with four known metabolites were obtained from the fermentation extract of Penicillium aculeatum, an endophytic fungus isolated from the marine red alga Laurencia obtusa. The structures of the compounds were established on the basis of extensive NMR and MS spectroscopic analysis. The ethyl acetate extract exhibited potent antibacterial inhibitory activity against Escherichia coli, while compound 2 exhibited antifungal activity against Candida albicans with inhibition diameters of 20.5 and 18.0 mm, respectively. Moreover, compound 2 also displayed the most potent preferential cytotoxicity against MCF-7, while compound 1 displayed relatively mild activity against HCT-116 with IC50 values of 2.18 and 5.23 mu M, respectively, compared to the drug control, paclitaxel.