Synthesis of The Leukotrienes and Other Lipoxygenase-Derived Products

Following extensive work on the cyclooxygenase pathways of arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism, ¹ which give rise to the prostaglandins, Hamberg and Samuelsson ² then discovered the first example of a lipoxygenase-derived product, 12-HPETE, ³ in mammalian systems. Prior to this discovery, lipoxygenases had been found only in plant tissues, and the finding of Hamberg and Samuelsson was destined to open up a whole new and exciting area of A A metabolism ⁴ which is still under vigorous investigation. Probably the single most exciting development in this area was the discovery in 1979 by Murphy et al. ⁵ that the long-known ⁶ but very elusive “slow-reacting substance of anaphylaxis” (SRS-A) ⁷ was in fact a product of the mammalian lipoxygenase pathway of A A metabolism.