Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 5, Issue 2, 2001

Catalytic mechanism of 3-deoxy-D-manno-2-octulosonate-8-phosphate (KDO8P) synthase (EC 4.1.2.16), an enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharides of Gram-negative bacteria, remains a fascinating subject for both bioorganic and medicinal researches. The enzyme catalyzes an aldol-type condensation of D-arabinose 5-phosphate with phosphoenolpyruvate to produce the unusual eight-carbon saccharide KDO Read More

A recent estimate suggests roughly 70percent of current lead compounds in modern drug discovery derive directly from the natural products, many of which are glycosylated bacterial metabolites. Thus, bacterial glycosyltransferases and their corresponding sugar substrates contribute significantly to the diversity of pharmaceutically important metabolites. This review summarizes (i) the role that carbohydrates contribut Read More

Sugar nucleotides serve as the activated forms of carbohydrates that are used in a wide range of biosynthetic pathways. Instead of building up the sugar nucleotide from the free sugar itself, nature often chooses to modify the donor portion of a pre-existing sugar nucleotide in a biosynthetically efficient manner. In doing so a rich variety of catalytic strategies are employed and this review focuses on recent mechanistic and struct Read More

Aminoglycoside antibiotics remain to the present date as important chemotherapeutic agents, which have been in clinical use for over 50 years. These antibiotics are multifunctional and have been challenging targets for synthetic chemists. Recent developments in understanding of the mechanism of action and of resistance to these agents have stimulated additional interest in these antibiotics. The present report discus Read More

The first total synthesis and development of a variety of bioactive compounds have been accomplished mainly by using carbohydrates, if any, as chiral sources. The target molecules are macrolide antibiotics, aminoglycoside antibiotics, antifungal antibiotics, antitumor antibiotics, a side-chain of b-lactam antibiotics, enzyme inhibitors including glycosidase inhibitors, central nervous system - affecting products, nonsteroidal prog Read More

Spiroacetals, cryptic ketodiols showing a hydroxyl group at both sides of a carbonyl whithin reachable distances are very widespread in nature. A group of 30 different structures, not including stereoisomers, represent volatile, less polar constituents of insect secretions.Five different systems were identified 1,6-dioxaspiro[ 4.4]nonanes, 1,6-dioxaspiro[4.5]decanes, 1,6-dioxaspiro[4.6]undecanes, 1,7-dioxaspiro[5.5]undecanes, a Read More