Identification of New Purpuroine Analogues from the Arctic Echinodermata Pteraster militaris That Inhibit FLT3-ITD(+) AML Cell Lines

Isolation of bioactive products from the marine environment is considered a very promising approach to identify new compounds that can be used for further drug development. In this work we have isolated three new compounds from the purpuroine family by mass-guided preparative HPLC; purpuroine K-M. These compounds where screened for antibacterial- and antifungal activity, antibiofilm formation and anti-cell proliferation activity. Additionally, apoptosis-, cell cycle-, kinase binding- and docking studies were performed to evaluate the mechanism-of-action. None of the compounds showed activity in antibacterial-, antibiofilm- or antifungal assays. However, one of the isolated compounds, purpuroine K, showed activity against two cell lines, MV-4-11 and MOLM-13, two AML cell lines both carrying the FTL3-ITD mutation. In MV-4-11 cells, purpuroine K was found to increase apoptosis and arrest cells cycle in G1/G0, which is a common feature of FLT3 inhibitors. Interactions between purpuroine K and the FLT3 wild type or FLT3 ITD mutant proteins could however not be elucidated in our kinase binding and docking studies. In conclusion, we have isolated three novel molecules, purpuroine K-M, one of which (purpuroine K) shows a potent activity against FLT3-ITD mutated AML cell lines, however, the molecular target(s) of purpuroine K still need to be further investigated.