The first syntheses of single enantiomers of the major methoxymycolic acid of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Abstract

Mycolic acids (Scheme 1) are major constituents of the cell envelope of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other mycobacteria, some of which are pathogenic to animals and humans.1 and 2 Their presence is thought to be linked with the resistance of these organisms to most current antibiotics and other chemotherapeutic agents.3 Mycolic acids can be divided into two parts, meromycolate and mycolic motif (Scheme 1). The latter is common to each mycobacterial mycolic acid, except for minor variations in the length of the chain(d)