Theopapuamide (
1), a new cytotoxic peptide, has been isolated from the lithistid spon
ge
Theonella swinhoei from PapuaNew Guinea. The structure was established by analysis of NMR, mass spectrometry, and chemical methods. Theundecapeptide (
1) contains several unusual amino acid residues, of which the occurrence of
![](/ima<font color=)
ges/
gifchars/beta2.
gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middle">-methoxyaspara
gine and4-amino-5-methyl-2,3,5-trihydroxyhexanoic acid (Amtha) is unprecedented in natural peptides. Compound
1 also containsan amide-linked fatty acid moiety, 3-hydroxy-2,4,6-trimethyloctanoic acid (Htoa). Theopapuamide (
1) was cytotoxica
gainst CEM-TART and HCT-116 cell lines, with EC
50 values of 0.5 and 0.9
![](/ima<font color=)
ges/entities/m
gr.
gif">M, respectively.