Discovery of Hyrtinadine A and Its Derivatives as Novel Antiviral and Anti-Phytopathogenic-Fungus Agents

Plant diseases caused by viruses and fungi have a serious impact on the quality and yield of crops, endangering food security. The use of new, green, and efficient pesticides is an important strategy to increase crop output and deal with the food crisis. Ideally, the best pesticide innovation strategy is to find and use active compounds from natural products. Here, we took the marine natural product hyrtinadine A as the lead compound, and designed, synthesized, and systematically investigated a series of its derivatives for their antiviral and antifungal activities. Compound 8a was found to have excellent antiviral activity against the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) (inactivation inhibitory effect of 55%/500 μg/mL and 19%/100 μg/mL, curative inhibitory effect of 52%/500 μg/mL and 22%/100 μg/mL, and protection inhibitory effect of 57%/500 μg/mL and 26%/100 μg/mL) and emerged as a novel antiviral candidate. These compound derivatives displayed broad-spectrum fungicidal activities against 14 kinds of phytopathogenic fungi at 50 μg/mL and the antifungal activities of compounds 5c, 5g, 6a, and 6e against Rhizoctonia cerealis are higher than that of the commercial fungicide chlorothalonil. Therefore, this study could lay a foundation for the application of hyrtinadine A derivatives in plant protection.