The Hydrophobicity and Antifungal Potentiation of Burkholdine Analogues.

The burkholdines are a family of cyclic lipopeptides reported to exhibit antifungal activity. We synthesized a series of 18 burkholdine analogues in good yield by conventional Fmoc-SPPS followed by cyclization with DIPCI/HOBt in the solution phase. Although none of the synthesized peptides exhibited antifungal activity, several did potentiate the antibiotic effect of the antibiotic G418, including the Thr-bearing Bk analogue ( 4b ) and the tartaramide-bearing Bk analogue ( 5b ). This work exemplifies the potential of burkholdine analogues as potentiating agents.