Alertenone, a dimer of suberosenone from Alertigorgia sp

Bioassay-guided fractionation of organic extracts of the gorgonian Alertigorgia sp. has yielded the previously known suberosenone (1), a cytotoxic tricyclic sesquiterpene of the quadrone class, and alertenone (2), a dimer of suberosenone. The structure of 2 was determined by spectral analysis; the 1D TOCSY experiment was particularly useful in the structure elucidation. Comparison of the in vitro cytotoxicity of alertenone and suberosenone revealed that the dimeric alertenone was devoid of cytotoxicity below 35 microg/mL. In a hollow-fiber assay model of in vivo activity, suberosenone exhibited some growth inhibition of two of six tumor cell lines tested.