Callyspongidic Acids: Amphiphilic Diacids from the Tropical Eastern Pacific Sponge Callyspongia cf. californica

Abstract

The first chemical study of the marine sponge Callyspongia cf. californica widely distributed along the coasts of the Tropical Eastern Pacific led to the identification of a new family of amphiphilic derivatives called callyspongidic acids. The four isolated metabolites 1−4 feature a hydrophilic diacid end opposed to both an aromatic moiety and a long alkyl chain. They were evaluated against a panel of pathogenic microbes and seven tumoral cell lines, displaying moderate inhibitory properties against the A2058 melanoma cell line with an IC 50 of 3.2 μM for callyspongidic acid C13:0 (2).

New records of Demospongiae (Porifera) from Reserva Marina El Pelado (Santa Elena, Ecuador), with description of Tedania (Tedania) ecuadoriensis sp. nov.

“…It is doubtful that there will ever be a proliferation of research institutes in the archipelago that might deepen the study of several aspects of these holobionts, whose transfer to mainland Ecuador is unlikely, at the least. Getting to know more the easily accessible sponges from the coast of mainland Ecuador is essential to develop this scientific field in the country, as highlighted from pioneering bioprospecting conducted at Reserva Marina El Pelado (Calabro et al 2018).…”

“…Callyspongia aff. californica also presents a complete family of bioactive amphiphilic compounds named callyspongidic acids that have inhibitory properties against the melanoma cell line A2058, metabolites that could be important for further chemotaxonomy studies (Calabro et al 2018). Its recorded depth at El Pelado is 5-20 m, but its frequent finding beached after storms suggests its occurrence in even shallower waters.…”

“…Despite the observed difference in spicule dimensions, overall morphological and ecological similarity strongly indicate that our specimen from Ecuador is most likely conspecific to the Mexican sample studied. Calabro et al (2018) provided a brief description of the Ecuadorian species in their Supporting Information, but the rationale for this name choice is only given here. Had we revised the species' type specimen, and generated sequences for faster evolving markers, we might have been confident of Ecuadorian specimens being best assigned to C. californica, despite a Meridional occurrence about 4,000 km distant from the species' previously known geographic range.…”

Metabolities from Marine Sponges of the Genus Callyspongia: Occurrence, Biological Activity, and NMR Data

“…The marine organisms of Callyspongia are distributed in tropical ecosystems, especially in the Central and Western Pacific [1,5,6]. They can also be seen in regions of the Indian Ocean, the West Atlantic Ocean, and the East Pacific Ocean, such as Indonesia [4], the Red Sea [7,8], Cuba [3], Barbados [9], Brazil [10,11], and Ecuador [12]. Because of this, the great variety of species allows the existence of new studies, but it also generates a large amount of data, which can cause confusion in research due to the accumulation of information.…”

“…Several classes of primary and secondary metabolites have been associated with the genus, such as fatty acids [17], alkaloids [18], steroids [19], nucleosides [20], peptides [4], polyacetylenes [21], and terpenoids [11]. Furthermore, molecules isolated from these species are found to present relevant biological activities, including antibacterial [7], antituberculosis [22], anti-inflammatory [19], antimalarial [23], and cytotoxic [7,12,24].…”