Oxidative stress (OS) is an in vivo process leading to free radical overproduction, which triggers polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) peroxidation resulting in the formation of racemic non-enzymatic oxygenated metabolites. As potential biomarkers of OS, their in vivo quantification is of great interest.
However, since a large number of isomeric metabolites is formed in parallel, their quantification remains difficult without primary standards. Three new PUFA-metabolites, namely 18-F-3t-isoprostane (IsoP) from eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), 20-F-4t-neuroprostane (NeuroP) from docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and 20-F-3t-NeuroP from docosapentaenoic acid (DPA(n-3)) were synthesized by two complementary synthetic strategies.
The first one relied on a racemic approach to 18(RS)-18-F-3t-IsoP using an oxidative radical anion cyclization as a key step, whereas the second used an enzymatic deracemization of a bicyclo[3.3.0]octene intermediate obtained from cyclooctadiene to pursue an asymmetric synthesis. The synthesized metabolites were applied in targeted lipidomics to prove lipid peroxidation in edible oils of commercial nutraceuticals.