Synthesis and biological evaluation of several dephosphonated analogues of CMP-Neu5Ac as inhibitors of GM3-synthase.

Previous studies demonstrated that reducing the GM3 content in myoblasts increased the cell resistance to hypoxic stress, suggesting that a pharmacological inhibition of the GM3 synthesis could be instrumental for the development of new treatments for ischemic diseases. Herein, the synthesis of several dephosphonated CMP-Neu5Ac congeners and their anti-GM3-synthase activity is reported. Biological activity testes revealed that some inhibitors almost completely blocked the GM3-synthase activity in vitro and reduced the GM3 content in living embryonic kidney 293A cells, eventually activating the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling cascade.