To investigate the structure-activity relationships, various biological activities, including pyrogenicity, lethal toxicity, elicitation of Shwartzman reaction, mitogenicity and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-inducing activity, were compared among natural and synthetic lipid A's differing in fatty acid composition. In all these tests, natural lipid A's from Escherichia coli and Salmonella minnesota and synthetic LA-15-PP, which carries 3-hydroxy- and 3-acyloxy-tetradecanoyl groups at the 2, 3 and 2', 3' positions, respectively, showed the strongest activities among the tested lipid A's. In contrast, LA-16-PP, in which the amide-bound 3-hydroxytetradecanoic acid at position 2 of LA-15-PP is replaced by 3-hexadecanoyloxytetradecanoic acid, exhibited lower activity than LA-15-PP and natural lipid A's. Although LA-16-PP has been assumed to have a typical Salmonella lipid A structure (and, in fact, it has a structure corresponding to one of the components of Salmonella lipid A), the activity of this synthetic compound was not comparable to that of natural Salmonella lipid A. LA-17-PP, in which tetradecanoic acid is the sole fatty acid component, exhibited relatively strong mitogenicity and TNF-inducing activity, but very low pyrogenicity. The activities of LA-18-PP, which has ester-bound tetradecanoic acid and amide-bound 3-hydroxytetradecanoic acid, were lower than those of LA-17-PP. The results indicate that the differences in fatty acid composition of lipid A's have important influences on the biological activities studied.

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The immunopharmacological activities of chemically synthesized lipid A-subunit analogs, 4-0-phosphono-D-glucosamine derivatives carrying different N-and 3-0-linked acyl groups, were investigated. None of the synthetic compounds tested exhibited any detectable pyrogenicity at a dose of 10 jig/kg. Weaker lethal toxicity in galactosamine-sensitized mice was detected at 1 jig per mouse for all the synthetic compounds except GLA-58. Among (RS) stereoisomers of 4-0-phosphono-D-glucosamine derivatives carrying a 3-0-tetradecanoyl (C14) group with different N-linked acyloxyacyl groups, i.e., 3-dodecanoyloxytetradecanoyl [C14-O-(C12)], 3-tetradecanoyloxytetradecanoyl [C14-O-(C14)], and 3-hexadecanoyloxytetradecanoyl (C14-O-(C16)] groups (termed GLA-57, GLA-27, and GLA-58, respectively), GLA-27 exhibited significant colony-stimulating factor-inducing and tumor necrosis factor-inducing activities, mitogenicity, polyclonal B-cell activation activity, macrophage activation, and adjuvanticity. The activities of GLA-57, which had an N-linked C14-O-(C12) group, were equivalent to or somewhat weaker than those of GLA-27 with a C14-O-(C14) group. Significant immunopharmacological activities were not observed for GLA-58, carrying a C14-O-(C16) group bound to the amino group. GLA-59, carrying 3-0-linked 3-hydroxytetradecanoyl (C140H) and N-linked C14-O-(C14) groups, showed much higher activities than GLA-27. GLA-60, a compound which possesses the same fatty acid substituents as GLA-59 but with reversed binding sites, showed the strongest B-cell activation and adjuvant activities among the synthetic compounds. Among stereoisomers of GLA-59 and GLA-60 composed of fatty acid substituents with the (RR) and (SS) configuration, compounds with the (RR) configuration elicited stronger activities than the (SS) stereoisomers. The importance of fatty acid substituents, including stereospecificity for the expression of immunopharmacological activities of 4-0-phosphono-Dglucosamine derivatives, was demonstrated. Recently, many efforts have been focused on the development of lipid A-subunit analogs with low pyrogenicity which possess beneficial biological activities capable of enhancing host defense mechanisms (8-11, 14-16, 19-21). GLA-27, a glucosamine derivative with 4-0-phosphoryl, * Corresponding author.