Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Blog

Mark von Itzstein and co-workers have synthesised a series of novel C3 C-alkylated Neu5Ac2en derivatives, which by virtue of the substituent extending from C3 are probes of 150-loop flexibility in influenza virus sialidases.

Currently there is speculation as to what factors determine or affect loop flexibility in influenza A virus sialidases. The compounds described by Mark von Itzstein et al. in this HOT paper provide a way to probe sialidases for this flexibility and should help to elucidate the generality of 150-loop flexibility across all influenza virus sialidases, the factors that affect loop flexibility, and potentially the functional roles this flexibility may play.

This article is free to download for 4 weeks so find out more by reading the paper now.

Synthesis and evaluation of novel 3-C-alkylated-Neu5Ac2en derivatives as probes of influenza virus sialidase 150-loop flexibility
Santosh Rudrawar, Philip S. Kerry, Marie-Anne Rameix-Welti, Andrea Maggioni, Jeffrey C. Dyason, Faith J. Rose, Sylvie van der Werf, Robin J. Thomson, Nadia Naffakh, Rupert J. M. Russell and Mark von Itzstein
DOI: 10.1039/C2OB25627D