Chamigrane-Type Sesquiterpenes from as Lead Compounds against .

is an opportunistic protozoon that can be found in warm water bodies. It is the causative agent of the primary amoebic meningoencephalitis. Focused on our interest to develop promising lead structures for the development of antiparasitic agents, this study was aimed at identifying new anti- marine natural products from a collection of chamigrane-type sesquiterpenes with structural variety in the levels of saturation, halogenation and oxygenation isolated from . (+)-Elatol () was the most active compound against trophozoites with IC values of 1.08 μM against the ATCC 30808™ strain and 1.14 μM against the ATCC 30215™ strain. Furthermore, the activity of (+)-elatol () against the resistant stage of was also assessed, showing great cysticidal properties with a very similar IC value (1.14 µM) to the one obtained for the trophozoite stage. Moreover, at low concentrations (+)-elatol () showed no toxic effect towards murine macrophages and could induce the appearance of different cellular events related to the programmed cell death, such as an increase of the plasma membrane permeability, reactive oxygen species overproduction, mitochondrial malfunction or chromatin condensation. Its enantiomer (-)-elatol () was shown to be 34-fold less potent with an IC of 36.77 μM and 38.03 μM. An analysis of the structure-activity relationship suggests that dehalogenation leads to a significant decrease of activity. The lipophilic character of these compounds is an essential property to cross the blood-brain barrier, therefore they represent interesting chemical scaffolds to develop new drugs.