Antifungal Sterol Biosynthesis Inhibitors
- 1 January 1997
- book chapter
- Published by Springer Nature
- Vol. 28, 89-116
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5901-6_4
Abstract
Herbal medicines and related drugs used to treat infective organisms were available in ancient cultures and detailed in the first pharmacopoeia reported in 1146 ad, titled “Antidotarium Niclai” (Grun, 1991). During the following millennium, there has been continued interest in drug discovery and application. However, only in the last fifty years have effective therapeutic agents for fungal disease been developed that exploit a fundamental difference between the biochemistry or physiology of the pathogens and their hosts. Sterol biosynthesis is one of the few areas of difference in primary metabolism between fungi and animals. Unlike animals that synthesize 24-desalkyl sterols, such as cholesterol (cholest-5-en-3β-ol), many pathogenic fungi synthesize 24-alkylsterols, such as ergosterol (24β-methyl cholesta-5,7,22-trien-3β-ol). The major difference in the two sterols stems structurally from the presence and nature of the 24-alkyl group.Keywords
This publication has 71 references indexed in Scilit:
- Synthesis of Rationally Designed Mechanism-Based Inactivators of the (S)-Adenosyl-L-methionine: Δ24(25)−Sterol Methyl TransferaseSynthetic Communications, 1996
- Transformation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with a cDNA encoding a sterol C‐methyltransferase from Arabidopsis thaliana results in the synthesis of 24‐ethyl sterolsPublished by Wiley ,1996
- Mechanism and structural requirements for transformation of substrates by the methyl transferase from Saccharomyces cerevisiaeBiochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Lipids and Lipid Metabolism, 1996
- Evidence for separate intermediates in the biosynthesis of 24β-methylsterol end products by Gibberella fujikuroiBiochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Lipids and Lipid Metabolism, 1989
- Fungal Infections and the Search for Novel Antifungal AgentsAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1988
- Inhibition of sterol biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by N,N-diethylazasqualene and derivativesBiochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Lipids and Lipid Metabolism, 1988
- Control of fungal sterol C-24 transalkylation: Importance to developmental regulationBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 1986
- Effect of 20,25-diazacholesterol on viability and steroid synthesis capability of cultured chick embryo pectoral muscle cellsBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 1979
- The crystal structure of ergosterol monohydrateActa Crystallographica Section B: Structural Science, Crystal Engineering and Materials, 1976
- Evidence for the Origin of the Ethyl Group of β-SitosterolJournal of the American Chemical Society, 1963