Abstract:
Two novel diketopiperazines (
1 and
5), along with ten known compounds (
2−
4,
6−
12) demonstrating significant skin inflammation inhibition, were isolated from a marine-derived fungus identified as
Aspergillus sp. FAZW0001. The structural elucidation and configurational reassessments of compounds
1−
5 were established through comprehensive spectral analyses, with their absolute configurations determined
via single crystal X-ray diffraction using Cu K
α radiation, Marfey’s method, and comparison between experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra. Compounds
1,
2, and
8 exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activities in
Propionibacterium acnes (
P. acnes)-induced human monocyte cell lines. Compound
8 demonstrated the ability to down-regulate interleukin-1β (IL-1β) expression by inhibiting Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) expression and modulating the activation of myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and nuclear factor
κB (NF-
κB) signaling pathways, thus reducing the cellular inflammatory response induced by
P. acnes. Additionally, compound
8 showed the capacity to suppress mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation, thereby reducing IL-1β maturation and secretion. A three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationships (3D-QSAR) model was applied to compounds
5−
12 to analyze their anti-inflammatory structure-activity relationships.