Hymeglusin is a fungal β-lactone antibiotic that inhibits HMG-CoA synthase (IC50 = 0.12 μM) by covalently modifying the active Cys129 residue of the enzyme.[1][2] At a dose of 25 mg/kg, hymeglusin inhibits cholesterol biosynthesis in rats by 45%. Chiral studies indicate that the (2R,3R)-β-lactone moiety of hymeglusin is important for eliciting the specific inhibition of HMG-CoA synthase.[3] As a cell-wall targeting antibiotic, hymeglusin has been used to investigate the role of a gene important for controlling S. aureus virulence in a mouse sepsis model of infection.[4]
Reference:
[1]. Greenspan, M.D., Yudkovitz, J.B., Lo, C.Y., et al. Inhibition of hydroxymethylglutaryl-coenzyme A synthase by L-659,699. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84(21), 7488-7492 (1987).
[2]. Tomoda, H., Ohbayashi, N., Morikawa, Y., et al. Binding site for fungal β-lactone hymeglusin on cytosolic 3- hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A synthase. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1636(1), 22-28 (2004).
[3]. Tomoda, H., Ohbayashi, N., Kumagai, H., et al. Differential inhibition of HMG-CoA synthase and pancreatic lipase by the specific chiral isomers of β-lactone DU-6622. Biochem. Bioph. Res. Commun. 265(2), 536-540 (1999).
[4]. Balibar, C.J., Shen, X., McGuire, D., et al. cwrA, a gene that specifically responds to cell wall damage in Staphylococcus aureus. Microbiology 156(Pt 5), 1372-1383 (2010).