| Abstract: | New natural products seldom arouse much excitement. However, with their unprecedented and heavily oxygenated molecular structure, and potentially lucrative biological activity, the zaragozic acids (squalestatins) provoked a flurry of activity among academic and industrial chemists and biologists in the early 1990s. Since they are powerful inhibitors of squalene synthase, the enzyme catalyzing the first committed step on the biosynthetic pathway to cholesterol, hopes were high that the zaragozic acids would follow the huge commercial success of the mevinic acids by becoming second-generation cholesterol-lowering drugs. The unusual and characteristic 2,8-dioxabicyclo[3.2.1]octane-3,4,5-tricarboxylic acid “core” structure of the zaragozic acids stimulated a large number of diverse synthetic studies, ranging from the traditional to the avant garde. In this review we attempt to bring together for the first time the chemistry and biology of this fascinating class of molecules. |
