The ethanol extract of an Indonesian marine sponge Lamellodysideaherbacea inhibited the activity of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B), an important target enzyme for the treatment of type II diabetes. Bioassay-guided isolation yielded a known polybromodiphenyl ether (1) as a sole bioactive component. The structure of 1 was confirmed by spectroscopic data for 1 and its methyl ether derivative (2). Compound 1 markedly inhibited the PTP1B activity (IC50 = 0.85 μM) and showed a moderate cytotoxicity against two human cancer cell lines, HCT-15 (colon) and Jurkat (T-cell lymphoma) cells. On the other hand, compound 2 maintained potent inhibitory activity against PTP1B (IC50 = 1.7 μM) but did not show apparent cytotoxicity at 18 μM against these cancer cells. Four ester derivatives [acetyl (3), butyryl (4), hexanoyl (5), and benzoyl (6)] were prepared from 1 and their activities evaluated against PTP1B and two cancer cell lines to investigate the structure–activity relationships. Although compounds 3–6 exhibited potent inhibitory effects against PTP1B activity, cytotoxicity against HCT-15 and Jurkat cells was observed as a similar efficacy to that of 1. From these results, compound 2 was found to be the best inhibitor of PTP1B with no apparent cytotoxicity. Therefore, 2 may be a lead compound for making a new type of PTP1B inhibitor. Moreover, compound 2 did not inhibit the cell growth of Huh-7 cells (hepatoma). Hepatocytes are one of the locations of PTP1B, and Huh-7 cells are used to study the mechanism of action of compound 2.
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