A family of mycothiol analogues

A thioglycoside aminotriol scaffold has been elaborated by acylation, reductive alkylation, sulfonation, phosphorylation, and other procedures to produce a library of 40 functionalized thioglycosides that superficially resemble the enzyme-binding portions of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis detoxifier mycothiol and its metabolic congeners. To the extent that these analogues mimic the transition states derived from substrates of the mycothiol-associated enzymes, they might prove useful as inhibitors and, ultimately, as drug leads.