Filipin
Filipin is a group of related compounds known as the filipin complex. It was first discovered in 1955 by Upjohn from a microorganism called Streptomyces filipinensis found in soil from the Philippines, which is why it’s named Filipin.
Filipin is a polyene macrolide with strong antifungal activity, but most compounds in this family are too toxic for medical use. The notable exceptions are amphotericin B and nystatin A1.
Filipin works mainly by disrupting cell membranes rather than forming sterol-dependent ion channels. It is also highly fluorescent and binds specifically to cholesterol, making it a useful stain to detect cholesterol in cell membranes.
In research and medicine, filipin is used to study cholesterol distribution and related diseases, such as Niemann-Pick disease Type C. It can also inhibit certain membrane transport pathways in cells at specific concentrations.
The filipin complex consists of four components: filipin I (about 4%), II (about 25%), III (about 53%), and IV (about 18%).
Filipin III has the chemical formula C35H58O11 and a molar mass of about 654.8 g/mol. The three-dimensional arrangement of filipin III has been determined by carbon-13 NMR analysis.
In short, filipin is a cholesterol-binding, fluorescent compound mainly used as a research tool to study membranes and cholesterol-related processes, not as a medicine due to toxicity.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 04:36 (CET).