Going to any length? Trehalose diesters of various chain lengths have been synthesised in order to determine the effect of lipid length on innate immune recognition, as determined by NO and cytokine production by macrophages. In this work, we show that longer lipids (C(20) -C(26)) are required for macrophage activation, with C(22) giving optimal activity.

The C22 and C26 trehalose monoesters, each containing a single acyl chain, were synthesised in good overall yields and found to activate macrophages in a Mincle-dependent manner. The activities of the monoesters paralleled those of their diester counterparts, and both mono- and diesters could activate the immune response in the absence of priming. This is the first time that trehalose monoesters have been found to activate macrophages, and these studies thus provide an important framework for the rational design of other Mincle agonists.

No abstract

The Fráter-Seebach alkylation is a highly efficient means to diastereoselectively introduce α-substituents to chiral β-hydroxy esters, however, the yields of reactions in which longer chain alkyl halides are used can be disappointing. To provide a more robust protocol for the alkylation of β-hydroxy esters, we prepared a variety of long-chain allylic iodides with the view that the greater reactivity of the allylic system would