Recent advances in the discovery, biosynthesis, and therapeutic potential of isocoumarins derived from fungi: a comprehensive update

Microorganisms still remain the main hotspots in the global drug discovery avenue. In particular, fungi are highly prolific producers of vast structurally diverse specialized secondary metabolites, which have displayed a myriad of biomedical potentials. Intriguingly, isocoumarins is one distinctive class of fungal natural products polyketides, which demonstrated numerous remarkable biological and pharmacological activities. This review article provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art over the period 2000-2022 about the discovery, isolation, classifications, and therapeutic potentials of isocoumarins exclusively reported from fungi. Indeed, a comprehensive list of 351 structurally diverse isocoumarins were documented and classified according to their fungal sources [16 order/28 family/55 genera] where they have been originally discovered along with their reported pharmacological activities wherever applicable. Also, recent insights around their proposed and experimentally proven biosynthetic pathways are also briefly discussed.