Cytotoxic and anti-bacterial evaluation of two new aromatic A-ring steroids isolated from the Red Sea soft coral Dendronephthya spp.

AbstractA successful column chromatography of a CHCl3/MeOH crude extract of Dendronephthya spp. soft coral led to the isolation of two new aromatic A-ring steroids (1–2), together with three known compounds (3–5). Both 1 and 2 are 19-norsteroids. The chemical structures were elucidated based on extensive 1D, 2D NMR, and EIMS analyses. In cytotoxic bioassays, compounds 1–5 were tested against three cancer cell lines: MCF-7, NCI-1299, and HepG2, with IC50 in the ranges of 22.1–85.4, 26.9–88.7, and 25.9–93.7 μM, respectively. Compounds 1, 2, and 5 showed moderate degrees of inhibition against Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas sp. at 100 and 150 µg/mL, while exhibiting weak inhibition against Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus at 150 µg/mL.Keywords: Dendronephthya spp.aromatica-ring steroidscytotoxicantibacterial AcknowledgementsWe are thankful to the scientific research members at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of Egypt for the cytotoxic evaluation of the isolated compounds.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThe author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.