Farnesyl pyrophosphate


Farnesyl pyrophosphate, also known as farnesyl diphosphate, is the precursor to all sesquiterpenes, which comprises thousands of compounds. These include all sesquiterpenes as well as sterols and carotenoids. It is also used in the synthesis of CoQ, as well as dehydrodolichol diphosphate.

Biosynthesis

Farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase catalyzes sequential condensation reactions of dimethylallyl pyrophosphate with 2 units of 3-isopentenyl pyrophosphate to form farnesyl pyrophosphate:

Pharmacology

The above reactions are inhibited by bisphosphonates. Farnesyl pyrophosphate is a selective agonist of TRPV3.

Related compounds