Tuaimenal A, a Meroterpene from the Irish Deep-Sea Soft Coral <i>Duva florida</i>, Displays Inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro Enzyme.
Avalon NE, Nafie J, De Marco Verissimo C, Warrensford LC, Dietrick SG, Pittman AR, Young RM, Kearns FL, Smalley T, Binning JM, Dalton JP, Johnson MP, Woodcock HL, Allcock AL, Baker BJ.
Cold water benthic environments are a prolific source of structurally diverse molecules with a range of bioactivities against human disease. Specimens of a previously chemically unexplored soft coral, <i>Duva florida</i>, were collected during a deep-sea cruise that sampled marine invertebrates along the Irish continental margin in 2018. Tuaimenal A (<b>1</b>), a cyclized merosesquiterpenoid representing a new carbon scaffold with a highly substituted chromene core, was discovered through exploration of the soft coral secondary metabolome via NMR-guided fractionation. The absolute configuration was determined through vibrational circular dichroism. Functional biochemical assays and <i>in silico</i> docking experiments found tuaimenal A selectively inhibits the viral main protease (3CLpro) of SARS-CoV-2.