Lagosin is a pentaene antifungal produced by Streptomyces, first isolated in 1958 by researchers at MIT in the USA. The discovery was soon followed by several independent isolations as lagosin and cogomyin. Initially these metabolites were thought to be isomeric, but Pandey and colleagues at NCI definitively demonstrated they were identical. Structurally, lagosin is 14-hydroxyfilipin III and the most polar member of the filipin family of fungicides. Lagosin exhibits broad spectrum antifungal and antitumor activity and, like filipin, acts via interaction with cell membrane sterols.
