Chlamydiae are intracellular pathogens that depend on the host for their survival and development. Chowdhury et al. demonstrate that Chlamydia trachomatis infection can prevent mitochondrial fission in primary cells by reducing DRP1 abundance via miR-30c–dependent inhibition of p53.

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Infectious diseases caused by chlamydia or schistosomes are a major health problem worldwide, and particularly so in developing countries. The lack of appropriate vaccines renders the search for potent natural products against these disease-causing agents an urgent endeavor. Sponge-associated actinomycetes represent a rich reservoir for natural products. Among them, members of the genus Streptomyces are capable of synthesizing an impressive array of diverse natural products with a wide variety of biological activities. The naphthacene glycoside SF2446A2 was isolated from the calcium alginate beads culture of Streptomyces sp. strain RV15 that had originally been obtained from the Mediterranean sponge Dysidea tupha. Its structure was identified by spectroscopic analysis and MS and comparison with the literature data. SF2446A2 showed inhibitory activity against Chlamydia trachomatis and was able to inhibit the primary infection in a dose-dependent manner, as well as progeny formation. Moreover, it caused disruptive effects on the surface area of Schistosoma mansoni and affected the gonads by impairing oogenesis and spermatogenesis. Our current study demonstrates that sponge-associated actinomycetes are capable of providing compounds with new pharmacological activities and with relevance to drug discovery.

Marine sponges are rich sources of natural products exhibiting diverse biological activities. Bioactivity-guided fractionation of the Red Sea sponge Callyspongia aff. implexa led to the isolation of two new compounds, 26,27-bisnorcholest-5,16dien-23-yn-3β,7α-diol, gelliusterol E (1) and C 27polyacetylene, callimplexen A (2), in addition to the known compound β-sitosterol (3). The structures of the isolated compounds were determined by 1D-and 2D-NMR techniques as well as high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry and by comparison to the literature. The three compounds (1-3) were tested against Chlamydia trachomatis, an obligate intracellular gram-negative bacterium, which is the leading cause of ocular and genital infections worldwide. Only gelliusterol E (1) inhibited the formation and growth of chlamydial inclusions in a dose-dependent manner with an IC 50 value of 2.3 µM.

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