Synthetic N-alkylated iminosugars as new potential immunosuppressive agents.

The new emerging immunosuppressive effects displayed by iminosugars have not been much investigated so far. Several new N-alkyl dideoxy iminoalditols were designed and synthesized to explore their immunosuppressive effects. These iminosugars inhibited the proliferation of mouse splenocytes and the secretion of both IFN-γ and IL-4, which are the hallmark cytokines of Th1 and Th2 cells, respectively. Some compounds exerted good inhibitory effects. More importantly, the synthetic iminosugars prolonged the allograft survival in the mouse skin transplantation experiment. Our results provide a lead for further elucidation of the structure-activity relationships and modifications of iminosugars for better immunosuppressive agents.