Four new indolyl diketopiperazines, aspamides A-E (1-4) and two new diketopiperazines, aspamides F-G (5-6), along with 11 known diketopiperazines and intermediates were isolated from the solid culture of Aspergillus versicolor, which is an endophyte with the sea crab (Chiromantes haematocheir). Further chiral high-performance liquid chromatography resolution gave enantiomers (+)- and (-)-4, respectively. The structures and absolute configurations of compounds 1-6 were determined by the comprehensive analyses of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), high-resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS), and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculation. All isolated compounds were selected for the virtual screening on the coronavirus 3-chymoretpsin-like protease (Mpro) of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the docking scores of compounds 1-2, 5, 6, 8 and 17 were top among all screened molecules, may be helpful in fighting with Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) after further studies.
Keywords: Aspergillus versicolor; ECD calculation; diketopiperazines; enantiomers; endophyte fungus.