WS75624 A and B, new endothelin converting enzyme inhibitors isolated from Saccharothrix sp. No. 75624. I. Taxonomy, fermentation, isolation, physico-chemical properties and biological activities.

Novel endothelin converting enzyme (ECE) inhibitors, WS75624 A and B, have been isolated from the fermentation broth of Saccharothrix sp. No. 75624. These inhibitors were purified from an acetone extract of whole culture broth followed by HP-20 column chromatography, silica gel column chromatography and HPLC. WS75624 A and B showed highly potent ECE inhibitory activity, and both had IC50 values of 0.03 microgram/ml. WS75624 A and B also showed other metalloprotease (collagenase and neutral endopeptidase) inhibitory activity with IC50 values of 1 microgram/ml. Since large amount of WS75624 B was isolated, we tried in vivo evaluation using WS75624 B. WS75624 B inhibited big endothelin-induced pressor effect when administered to SD rat intravenously with big ET-1.