Bioinspired cationic polyene cyclization

Enzyme is one of the most powerful catalysts. It can catalyse various biochemical reactions very effectively in vivo under very mild conditions. In most cases, it exhibits high catalytic activity and results in products with perfect optical purities. One of such processes is the enzyme-catalysed synthesis of cholesterol in the biological systems for the synthesis of various terpenoids or steroids via the cationic polyene cyclization reaction. Therefore, there has been a strong interest among chemists in developing biomimetic versions of many of these biochemical transformations. This paper briefly describes the current research status of this field and our group's research contribution in this area.