Current perspectives on applications of shikimic and aminoshikimic acids in pharmaceutical chemistry

Abstract

Aromatic metabolism comprises the shikimic acid (SA) and the aminoshikimic acid (ASA) pathways. The SA pathway is the common route for the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids and other metabolites in bacteria, higher plants, fungi, and Apicomplexa parasites, but this pathway is absent in mammals. A variant of the SA pathway known as the ASA pathway branches off from the normal pathway in some bacteria, and its final product, 3-amino-5-hydroxybenzoic acid, is the precursor for many aminoglycoside antibiotics such as kanamycin, neomycin, butirosin, and spectinomycin. The SA pathway includes the key intermediate SA, which is the precursor for the chemical synthesis of the drug oseltamivir phosphate, known commercially as Tamiflu®, an efficient inhibitor of the neuraminidase enzyme of the seasonal influenza viruses types A and B, avian influenza virus H5N1, and human influenza virus H1N1. Meanwhile, the intermediate of the ASA pathway, ASA, is an attractive candidate for use as the core scaffold for the synthesis of combinatorial libraries and is a potential alternative to SA as a precursor for oseltamivir phosphate synthesis. In this review, we discuss the relevance of the key intermedi- ates SA and ASA as scaffold molecules for the synthesis of diverse chemicals. We highlight the current and potential pharmaceutical applications of these molecules and discuss the main strategies for the production of these aromatic compounds from natural sources and the appli- cation of metabolic engineering strategies in diverse bacterial strains for production through biotechnological processes.