Synthesis and Therapeutic Effects of Alkylglycerols

The active ingredients in the natural shark liver oil (SLO) mixture were found to be a group of ether-linked glycerol known as alkylglycerols (AKGs). During the last century, initial clinical use of the SLO mixture was for treating leukemias, and later preventing radiation sickness from cancer x-ray therapy. Currently, resistance to the existing drugs and increasing numbers of diseases result in identifying new drugs candidates with new forms of activities. Consequently, natural and non-natural synthesized AKGs could be one new source of drug delivery systems. This book focuses on the medicinal chemistry of new potential drugs, with alklyglycerols as undeniable source. In chapter 1, we review the beneficial effects of alkylglycerols. In chapter 2, we discuss a consise and highly efficient synthetic process for a natural bioactive 2-methoxyalkyl glycerol ether analogue. In chapter 3, we feature the synthesis of bioactive non-natural alkylglycerols. Overall, the chapters in this book point natural and non-natural synthesized AKGs as one new source of drugs delivery system, but remind us of the cope in developing new efficient routes to 1-O-alkylglycerols.