Chemistry and Bioactivities of Aristeromycins: An Overview

The majority of carbocyclic nucleosides are of synthetic origin; nature has provided two of the most interesting compounds, aristeromycin and neplanocin A. Aristeromycin and its modified derivatives are an important group of carbocyclic nucleosides that exhibits a wide range of pharmacological properties such as antiviral, anticancer and antitoxoplasma activities. Especially, aristeromycins are widely used as antiviral agents against human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B virus, herpes simplex virus, varicella-zoster virus, influenza virus and hepatitis C virus. These potential antiviral and other biological applications of aristeromycin have motivated new effort in search for novel modified aristeromycin derivatives with improved biological activities. Owing to the importance of aristeromycin and its derivatives, the aim of this review is to highlight the aspects reported on the chemistry and bioactivities of aristeromycins.