Reengineering an azaphilone biosynthesis pathway in Aspergillus nidulans to create lipoxygenase inhibitors.

Sclerotiorin, an azaphilone polyketide, is a bioactive natural product known to inhibit 15-lipoxygenase and many other biological targets. To readily access sclerotiorin and analogs, we developed a 2-3 step semisynthetic route to produce a variety of azaphilones starting from an advanced, putative azaphilone intermediate (5) overproduced by an engineered strain of Aspergillus nidulans. The inhibitory activities of the semisynthetic azaphilones against 15-lipoxygenase were evaluated with several compounds displaying low micromolar potency.