Abstract
Cold water benthic environments are a prolific source of structurally diverse molecules with a range of bioactivities against human disease. Specimens of a previously chemically unexplored soft coral, Duva florida, were collected during a deep-sea cruise that sampled marine invertebrates along the Irish continental margin in 2018. Tuaimenal A (1), a cyclized merosesquiterpenoid representing a new carbon scaffold with a highly substituted chromene core, was discovered through exploration of the soft coral secondary metabolome via NMR-guided fractionation. The absolute stereochemistry was determined through vibrational circular dichroism. Functional biochemical assays and in silico docking experiments found tuaimenal A selectively inhibits the viral main protease (3CLpro) of SARS-CoV-2.
Version notes
Tuaimenal A not only demonstrates in silico activity, but also demonstrates inhibition in biochemical assays against the 3CLpro enzyme of SARS-CoV-2 and this has been included. The antiproliferative activity has been removed.
Content

Supplementary material

Supplementary Information for Tuaimenal A
The following Supporting Information is available:
1H, 13C, 2D NMR, HRESIMS, UV, FTIR spectra, and VCD data for tuaimenal A (1);
binding site residues for rigid docking with 3CLpro, Plpro, RdRp, and TMPRSS2 protein targets (PDF).