Aaptamines, marine spongean alkaloids, as anti-dormant mycobacterial substances.

A new aaptamine class alkaloid, designated 2-methoxy-3-oxoaaptamine (1), together with seven known aaptamines (2-8) were isolated from a marine sponge of Aaptos sp. as anti-mycobacterial substances against active and dormant bacilli. The chemical structure of 1 was determined on the basis of spectroscopic analysis. Compound 1 was anti-mycobacterial against Mycobacterium smegmatis in both active growing and dormancy-inducing hypoxic conditions with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 6.25 μg/ml, and compounds 2, 5, 6, and 7 showed anti-mycobacterial activities under hypoxic condition selectively, with MIC values of 1.5-6.25 μg/ml.