New gentisyl alcohol derivatives from Aspergillus japonicas collected from the Arctic 6700-4 sea area

Six compounds were isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of the marine fungus Aspergillus japonicas, which was collected from surface seawater in the Arctic 6700-4 sea area, including two new gentisyl alcohol derivatives named dimeric terrestrol I (1) and dimeric terrestrol J (2), along with four known compounds, dimeric terrestrol E (3), 2-(hydroxymethyl) benzene-1,4-diol (4), methyl (2′,5′-dihydroxyphenyl) acetate (5), and toluhydroquinone (6). All compounds were characterized and established by spectral analysis of 1D NMR and reported data, confirmed using 2D NMR and HR-MS for new compounds. All the compounds were tested for in vitro activity. The results show that dimeric terrestrol J (2), alleviated lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced BV2 microglial cell death by reducing the generation of nitric oxide (NO), has strong anti-inflammatory activity and is even stronger than Dexamethasone (DEX). Furthermore, molecular docking was conducted to verify the affinity between the protein and ligand.