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.