Ecology- and bioassay-guided drug discovery for treatments of tropical parasitic disease: 5alpha,8alpha-epidioxycholest-6-en-3beta-ol isolated from the mollusk Dolabrifera dolabrifera shows significant activity against Leishmania donovani.

An ecology- and bioassay-guided search employed to discover compounds with activity against tropical parasitic diseases and cancer from the opisthobranch mollusk, Dolabrifera dolabrifera, led to the discovery of antileishmanial properties in the known compound, 5alpha,8alpha-epidioxycholest-6-en-3beta-ol (1). Compound 1 was identified through nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H, 13C) and mass spectrometry. The compound was concentrated in the digestive gland of D. dolabrifera, but was not detected in other body parts, fecal matter or mucus. Compound 1 showed an IC50 of 4.9 microM towards the amastigote form of Leishmania donovani compared with an IC50 of 281 microM towards the control Vero cell line, a 57.3-fold difference, and demonstrated no measurable activity against Plasmodium falciparum, Trypanosoma cruzi, and the breast cancer cell line, MCF-7.