Design and Synthesis of Benzene Congeners of Resolvin E2, a Proresolving Lipid Mediator, as Its Stable Equivalents

Resolvins (Rvs) are highly potent anti-inflammatory lipid mediators that are chemically and biologically unstable because of their polyunsaturated structures. To address this issue, we designed benzene congeners of RvE2, i.e., o-, m-, and p-BZ-RvE2s, as stable equivalents of RvE2 by replacing the unstable skipped diene moiety with a benzene ring on the basis of computational conformation studies and synthesized these congeners via a short common route through two Stille couplings. o-BZ-RvE2 exhibited more potent anti-inflammatory activity and much higher metabolic stability than RvE2. Thus, o-BZ-RvE2 was identified as a stable equivalent of RvE2, which is useful as a lead for anti-inflammatory drugs with a new mechanism of action as well as a biotool for investigating RvE2-mediated inflammation resolving pathways.