Lethal and Adjuvant Activities of Cord Factor (Trehalose-6,6’-dimycolate) and Synthetic Analogs in Mice

Abstract

Mycobacterial glycolipid, trehalose-6,6‘-dimycolate (TDM), and its analogs, 6,6/-di-O-triacontanoyl-α,α-trehalose [TD(L30)], 6,6’-bis-O-(2-tetradecylhexadecanoyl)-α,α-trehalose [TD-(B30)], 6,6’-bis-O-(3-hydroxy-2-tetradecyloctadecanoyl)-α,α-trehalose [TD(BH32)], 6,6’-bis-(9-(2-docosyl-3-hydroxyhexacosanoyl)-α,α-trehalose [TD(BH48)], 6,6/-bis-O-(3-tetradecanoyloxy-tetradecanoyl)-α,α-trehalose [TD(D28)], 6,6’-dideoxy-6,6’-bis(mycoloylamino)-α,α-trehalose [TDNM] and 6,6’-dideoxy-6,6’-bis(3-hydroxy-2-tetradecyloctadecanoylamino)-α,α-trehalose [TDN(BH32)], were synthesized, and their lethal and adjuvant activities were examined. TDM and TDNM were lethal when injected intravenously into mice at a dose of 150μg as 9% oil-in-water emulsion, but the other analogs showed no lethal toxicity to mice at the same dose. The cytolytic activity of mouse peritoneal macrophages against tumor cells was potentiated by intraperitoneal injection of TDM and its synthetic analogs. TDM and TD(BH32) also stimulated nonspecific host resistance against Sendai virus infection in BALB/c mice. © 1985, The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan. All rights reserved.