“…Such an agent might be of value in the therapy of diseases in which these potent lipid mediators have been implicated, such as asthma, psoriasis, allergic disorders, myocardial ischemia, and inflammation. The enzyme 5-lipoxygenase controls the entry of free arachidonic acid into the oxidative pathways which can lead to the formation of the peptidoleukotrienes (LTC4, LTD4, and LTEI) 5,la-diHETEs and LTB4, and lipoxins, as shown in Scheme I. Substrate recognition and subsequent catalysis require a 1,4-diene system that is 5-9 carbons removed from the carboxylic acid group in polyenoic acid substrates such as 5,8,11-eicosatrienoic acid, 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraenoic acid (arachidonic acid), and 5,8,11,14,17-eicosapntenoic acid.3.4 In 5-lipoxygenation of arachidonic acid, the reaction appears to proceed via the coordinate addition of oxygen across the 5,g-double bond, with a double-bond shift from 5,6-to 6,7-positions to form 5- Their results prompted us to report our findings on the syntheses and inhibitory activities of 9-(4-chlorophenyl)-7,7-dimethyl-5(2), 8-nonadienoic acid (7) and its methyl ester (6). We speculated that the aryl group could isosterically replace the C-10 to C-20 diene segments of arachidonic acid.…”