Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) is a transcription factor that promotes tumor cell adaptation and survival underhypoxic conditions. HIF-1 is currently recognized as an important molecular target for anticancer drug discovery. AT47D breast tumor cell-based reporter assay was used to evaluate the NCI Open Repository of marine invertebrates andalgae lipid extracts for HIF-1 inhibitory activity. Bioassay-guided fractionation and isolation of an active extract from
Axinella sp. yielded seven new sodwanone triterpenoids [3-epi-sodwanone K (
1), 3-epi-sodwanone K 3-acetate (
2),10,11-dihydrosodwanone B (
4), sodwanones T-W (
3,
7,
8,
9)], the new yardenone triterpene 12
R-hydroxyyardenone(
10), and the previously reported compounds sodwanone A (
5), sodwanone B (
6), and yardenone (
11). The structuresand relative configurations of these
Axinella metabolites were determined spectroscopically. The absolute configurationof
1 was determined by the modified Mosher ester procedure. Sodwanone V (
8) inhibited both hypoxia-induced andiron chelator (1,10-phenanthroline)-induced HIF-1 activation in T47D breast tumor cells (IC
50 15
M), and
8 was theonly sodwanone that inhibited HIF-1 activation in PC-3 prostate tumor cells (IC
50 15
M). Compounds
1,
3,
4, and
5inhibited hypoxia-induced HIF-1 activation in T47D cells (IC
50 values 20-25
M). Compound
2 was cytotoxic toT47D cells (IC
50 22
M), and
8 showed cytotoxicity to MDA-MB-231 breast tumor cells (IC
50 23
M).