Directed biosynthesis of fluorinated pseurotin A, synerazol and gliotoxin

Aspergillus fumigatus TP-F0196 produces pseurotin A, synerazol and gliotoxin. Phenylalanine is a common biosynthetic precursor of these antibiotics. Feeding fluorophenylalanine to the culture induced the production of novel fluorinated analogs. These fluorinated antibiotics were obtained from the culture broth by solvent extraction and purified by chromatographies, and their antimicrobial and antitumor activities were investigated. Among the novel fluorinated analogs, 19- and 20-fluorosynerazols exhibited potent anti-angiogenic activity in the chorioallantoic membrane assay. In addition, 19-fluorosynerazol showed more potent cytocidal activity against several cancer cell lines than synerazol.