2.B.40. The Monoacylglycerol Anion Carrier (MAG-AC) Family Bahmanjah et al. 2012 showed that amphiphilic natural products, monoacylglycerols (see Fig 29 in Gale et al. 2017), function as transmembrane Cl^-/NO3^- anion exchange transporters. The 1,2-diol group proved to be crucial for transport function since diacylglycerol and triacylglycerol analogs were not anion transporters. Adding another hydrogen bond donor to the glycerol head-group and perfluorination of the acyl tail gave synthetic analogs with improved Cl^- membrane transport properties with 20-fold better Cl^-/NO₃^-antiport activity than the parental compound.
References:
Bahmanjah, S., N. Zhang, and J.T. Davis. (2012). Monoacylglycerols as transmembrane Cl^- anion transporters. Chem Commun (Camb) 48: 4432-4434.
Gale, P.A., J.T. Davis, and R. Quesada. (2017). Anion transport and supramolecular medicinal chemistry. Chem Soc Rev 46: 2497-2519.