Tunicamycin: chemical synthesis and biosynthesis
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Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Millifluidics for Chemical Synthesis and Time-resolved Mechanistic Studies
Published on: November 27, 2013
Kazuki Yamamoto1, Satoshi Ichikawa2,3
1Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University, Kita-12, Nishi-6, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0812, Japan.
Abstract:
Tunicamycins are nucleoside natural products and show antibacterial, antiviral and antitumor activities, which are attributed to their inhibition of enzymatic reactions between polyisoprenyl phosphate and UDP-GlcNAc or UDP-MurNAc-pentapeptide. Because of their various intriguing biological activities, tunicamycins have potential as therapeutic agents for infectious diseases or cancers. Structurally, tunicamycins have a unique structure composed of an undecodialdose skeleton, a lipid chain and a GlcNAc fragment linked by a 1,1-β,α-trehalose-type glycosidic bond. In this mini review, we summarize the total chemical syntheses and biosynthetic studies of tunicamycins.
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