Approaches to the synthesis of immunolides: selective immunomodulatory macrolides for cystic fibrosis.

The discovery of the clinical effectiveness of erythromycin and azithromycin in inflammatory airway diseases has inspired the discovery and development of macrolides with selective immunomodulatory activity. Erythromycin degradation continues to be a source of novel macrolides with a variety of selective biological activities. New technologies for drug discovery based in the emerging field of combinatorial biosynthesis provide the medicinal chemist with novel approaches toward the discovery of novel macrolides.