Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of BMP-Induced Osteoblastic Differentiation from Indonesian Marine Invertebrates

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare congenital disorder with heterotopic ossification (HO) in soft tissues. The abnormal activation of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling by a mutant activin receptor-like kinase-2 (ALK2) leads to the development of HO in FOP patients, and, thus, BMP signaling inhibitors are promising therapeutic applications for FOP. In the present study, we screened extracts of 188 Indonesian marine invertebrates for small molecular inhibitors of BMP-induced alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, a marker of osteoblastic differentiation in a C2C12 cell line stably expressing ALK2(R206H) (C2C12(R206H) cells), and identified five marine sponges with potent ALP inhibitory activities. The activity-guided purification of an EtOH extract of marine sponge Dysidea sp. (No. 256) resulted in the isolation of dysidenin (1), herbasterol (2), and stellettasterol (3) as active components. Compounds 1–3 inhibited ALP activity in C2C12(R206H) cells with IC50 values of 2.3, 4.3, and 4.2 µM, respectively, without any cytotoxicity, even at 18.4–21.4 µM. The direct effects of BMP signaling examined using the Id1WT4F-luciferase reporter assay showed that compounds 1–3 did not decrease the reporter activity, suggesting that they inhibit the downstream of the Smad transcriptional step in BMP signaling.