Synthesis of analogues of squalene as potential anti-fungal agents
Abstract
Squalene was selectively degraded to tris-norsqualene, and this was converted into 1-fluoro, 1,1-difluoro, and 2-trimethylsilylmethyl analogues of squalene, and also into 2-cyanonorsqualene. These compounds were designed as potential inhibitors of fungal squalene epoxidase/epoxysqualene cyclase, but biological evaluation using five fungal pathogens revealed that none exhibited more than modest antifungal activity.