A series of quinoline-based 3, 5-dihydroxyheptenoic acid derivatives were synthesized from quinolinecarboxylic acid esters by homologation, aldol condensation with ethyl acetoacetate dianion, and reduction of 3-hydroxyketone to evaluate their ability to inhibit the enzyme HMG- CoA reductase in vitro. In agreement with previous literature, a strict structural requirement exists on the external ring, and 4-fluorophenyl is the most active in this system. For the ...