Synthesis of Catalipids

A number of different synthetic routes to catalipids, viz. lipids bearing an imidazole moiety have been elaborated. All syntheses benefit from a solid phase technology previously developed for the preparation of single-compound libraries of transfection lipids.[38] Figure 11 and 12 summarize the chemical steps of non-phosphate and phosphate containing catalipids, respectively.



Figure 11  General routes for the synthesis of catalipids bearing no phosphate.
While for SPOS-validation purposes our initial work (1st year) was based on saturated fatty acid sidechains or alkyl groups of various length, the second year concentrated on oleic acid sidechains. All compounds synthesized were purified and identified using MALDI and/or ESI-MS.

Figure 12  Synthesis of phosphate containing catalipids exemplified for oleic acid sidechains.