New Compounds and Case Studies
A. Natural agrochemicals – a number of natural pesticides have been discovered from Mycosynthetix fungi; for example, Dow AgroSciences has discovered a novel herbicide from two of our fungi.
B. MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus
aureus) – Mycosynthetix has a number of fungi which are
active against this deadly organism. For example see the following
article:
Christie Boros, Alissa Dix, Barry Katz, Yelena Vasina and Cedric Pearce: Isolation and Identification of Cissetin - A Setin-like Antibiotic with a Novel cis-Octalin Ring Fusion. Journal of Antibiotics 56, 862-5 (2003).
C. Influenza – Mycosynthetix
has a number of fungi which have shown activity against influenza targets.
For example see the following article:
The structure of a new antiviral product isolated from a fungus from the Mycosynthetix collection was recently published: see Emmyguyacins A and B: Unusual Glycolipids from a Sterile Fungus Species that Inhibit the Low-pH Conformational Change of Hemagglutinin A during Replication of Influenza Virus. Christie Boros, Barry Katz, Scott Mitchell, Cedric Pearce, Karra Swinbeck and Debra Taylor, J. Natural Products, 65, 108-114 (2002).
D. Gene regulation and metabolic diseases – Mycosynthetix
fungi have been investigated for low molecular weight gene modulators
and a number of interesting compounds found. For example see the following
anti-diabetic compound:
A potential anti-diabetic compound has been discovered from a Mycosynthetix fungus and is described in the following publication: Chaowei Zhang, Liang Lin, Belinda Mondie, Scott Mitchell, Arlindo Castelhano, Weizhong Cai and Nils Bergenhem: Leporin B: A Novel Hexokinase II Gene Inducing Agent from an Unidentified Fungus. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 13 (2003) 1433-1435.
