New Antiproliferative Cembrane Diterpenes from the Red Sea Species.

The combination of liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRESMS)-based dereplication and antiproliferative activity-guided fractionation was applied on the Red Sea-derived soft coral sp. This approach facilitated the isolation of five new cembrane-type diterpenoids (-), along with two known analogs ( and ), as well as the identification of 19 further, known compounds. The chemical structures of the new compounds were elucidated while using comprehensive spectroscopic analyses, including one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) NMR and HRMS. All of the isolated cembranoids (-) showed moderate antiproliferative activity against a human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7), with IC ranging from 22.39-27.12 µg/mL. This class of compounds could thus serve as scaffold for the future design of anticancer leads.