Berkeleydione and berkeleytrione, new bioactive metabolites from an acid mine organism

Two novel hybrid polyketide-terpenoid metabolites were isolated from a Penicillium sp. growing in the Berkeley Pit Lake of Butte, Montana. Their structures were deduced by spectroscopic analysis and confirmed by single-crystal X-ray analysis on berkeleydione (1). Both compounds inhibited matrix metalloproteinase-3 and caspase-1, and berkeleydione showed activity toward non-small-cell lung cancer in NCI's human cell line antitumor screen.