Ph2SO/Tf2O: a powerful promotor system in chemoselective glycosylations using thioglycosides

Lewis acids as α-directing additives in glycosylations by using 2,3-O-carbonate-protected glucose and galactose thioglycoside donors based on preactivation protocol

Catalytic or stoichiometric amounts of Lewis acids were found to be very effective α-directing additives in the stereoselective glycosylations of diverse 2,3-O-carbonate-protected glucose and galactose thioglycoside donors by preactivation protocol. The poor stereoselectivities of 4,6-di-O-acetyl-2,3-O-carbonate protected thioglycoside donors in glycosyl coupling reactions were greatly improved, and excellent α-stereoselectivities were achieved by the addition of 0.2 equiv of BF(3)·OEt(2). On the other hand, the β-selectivities of 4,6-di-O-benzyl-2,3-O-carbonate-protected thioglucoside donor toward glycosylations were reversed completely to the α-selectivities by the use of 1 equiv of SnCl(4), making the stereoselectivity controllable. Furthermore, the poor stereoselectivities of 4,6-di-O-benzyl-2,3-O-carbonate-protected thiogalactoside donor in glycosylations were also improved by using SnCl(4) as additive.

Efficient activation of thioglycosides with N-(p-methylphenylthio)-ε-caprolactam-TMSOTf

N-(p-Methylphenylthio)-ε-caprolactam (1) in combination with trimethylsilyl trifluoromethanesulfonate (TMSOTf) provides an efficient thiophilic promoter system, capable of activating different thioglycosides. Both 'armed' and 'disarmed' thioglycosyl donors were activated for glycosidic bond formation. Notably, this reagent combination works well in reactivity-based one-pot oligosaccharide assembly strategy.

Mechanistic studies on a sulfoxide transfer reaction mediated by diphenyl sulfoxide/triflic anhydride

Sulfoxides are frequently used in organic synthesis as chiral auxiliaries and reagents to mediate a wide variety of chemical transformations. For example, diphenyl sulfoxide and triflic anhydride can be used to activate a wide range of glycosyl donors including hemiacetals, glycals and thioglycosides. In this way, an alcohol, enol or sulfide is converted into a good leaving group for subsequent reaction with an acceptor alcohol. However, reaction of diphenyl sulfoxide and triflic anhydride with oxathiane-based thioglycosides, and other oxathianes, leads to a different process in which the thioglycoside is oxidised to a sulfoxide. This unexpected oxidation reaction is very stereoselective and proceeds under anhydrous conditions in which the diphenyl sulfoxide acts both as oxidant and as the source of the oxygen atom. Isotopic labelling experiments support a reaction mechanism that involves the formation of oxodisulfonium (S-O-S) dication intermediates. These intermediates undergo oxygen-exchange reactions with other sulfoxides and also allow interconversion of axial and equatorial sulfoxides in oxathiane rings. The reversibility of the oxygen-exchange reaction suggests that the stereochemical outcome of the oxidation reaction may be under thermodynamic control, which potentially presents a novel strategy for the stereoselective synthesis of sulfoxides.

Toward automated oligosaccharide synthesis

Carbohydrates have been shown to play important roles in biological processes. The pace of development in carbohydrate research is, however, relatively slow due to the problems associated with the complexity of carbohydrate structures and the lack of general synthetic methods and tools available for the study of this class of biomolecules. Recent advances in synthesis have demonstrated that many of these problems can be circumvented. In this Review, we describe the methods developed to tackle the problems of carbohydrate-mediated biological processes, with particular focus on the issue related to the development of the automated synthesis of oligosaccharides. Further applications of carbohydrate microarrays and vaccines to human diseases are also highlighted.

Methodology development and physical organic chemistry: a powerful combination for the advancement of glycochemistry

This Perspective outlines work in the Crich group on the diastereoselective synthesis of the so-called difficult classes of glycosidic bond: the 2-deoxy-β-glycopyranosides, the β-mannopyranosides, the α-sialosides, the α-glucopyranosides, and the β-arabinofuranosides with an emphasis on the critical interplay between mechanism and methodology development.

A highly α-stereoselective synthesis of oligosaccharide fragments of the Vi antigen from Salmonella typhi and their antigenic activities

In this paper, a convenient approach to the synthesis of the repeating α-(1→4)-linked N-acetyl galactosaminuronic acid units from the capsular polysaccharide of Salmonella typhi is reported. The exclusively α-stereoselective glycosylation reactions were achieved by using oxazolidinone-protected glycosides as building blocks based on a pre-activation protocol. Di-, tri-, and tetrasaccharides were prepared by this short and efficient approach in high yields. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay experiments show that our synthetic tri- and tetrasaccharide had much higher antigenic activities than previously reported ones in the inhibition of antibody binding by the native polysaccharide. The results demonstrate that the antigenic activities of saccharides can be strengthened greatly by increasing the number of acetyl groups present.

Expeditious oligosaccharide synthesis via selective, semi-orthogonal, and orthogonal activation

Traditional strategies for oligosaccharide synthesis often require extensive protecting and/or leaving group manipulations between each glycosylation step, thereby increasing the total number of synthetic steps while decreasing the efficiency of the synthesis. In contrast, expeditious strategies allow for the rapid chemical synthesis of complex carbohydrates by minimizing extraneous chemical manipulations. Oligosaccharide synthesis by selective activation of one leaving group over another is one such expeditious strategy. Herein, the significant improvements that have recently emerged in the area of the selective activation are discussed. The development of orthogonal strategy further expands the scope of the selective activation methodology. Surveyed in this article, are representative examples wherein these excellent innovations have been applied to the synthesis of various oligosaccharide sequences.

Chemical synthesis and immunosuppressive activity of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylinositol hexamannoside

Phosphatidylinositol mannosides (PIMs) isolated from mycobacteria have been identified as an important class of phosphoglycolipids with significant immune-modulating properties. We present here the synthesis of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylinositol hexamannoside (PIM(6)) 1 and the first reported functional biology of a synthetic PIM(6). Key steps in the synthetic protocol included the selective glycosylation of an inositol 2,6-diol with a suitably protected mannosyl donor and construction of the glycan core utilizing a [3 + 4] thio-glycosylation strategy. The target 1 was purified by reverse phase chromatography and characterized by standard spectroscopic methods, HPLC, and chemical modification by deacylation to dPIM(6). The (1)H NMR spectrum of synthetic dPIM(6) obtained from 1 matched that of dPIM(6) obtained from nature. PIM(6) (1) exhibited dendritic cell-dependent suppression of CD8(+) T cell expansion in a human mixed lymphocyte reaction consistent with the well established immunosuppressive activity of whole mycobacteria.

Active thionium species mediated functionalization at the 2α-position of indole derivatives

A combination of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and trifluoroacetic anhydride (TFAA) mediates functionalization at the 2α-position of indole derivatives. Carbon and heteroatom nucleophiles were directly introduced via a one-pot procedure in excellent yields.

A practical synthesis of capped 4-methylumbelliferyl hyaluronan disaccharides and tetrasaccharides as potential hyaluronidase substrates

The synthesis of hyaluronan dimers and tetramers equipped with a 4-methylumbelliferyl group at the reducing end to potentially allow monitoring of hyaluronidase activities is described. The 4-OH at the non-reducing glucuronate in the presented series is either removed or methylated to prohibit transglycosylase reactions, leading to a total of four probes.

Total synthesis of the Bacteroides fragilis zwitterionic polysaccharide A1 repeating unit

Nearly all bacteria capsular polysaccharides are T-cell-independent antigens that do not promote immunoglobulin class switching from IgM to IgG nor memory responses. In contrast, zwitterionic polysaccharides activate T-cell-dependent immune responses by major histocompatability complex class II presentation, a mechanism previously believed to be reserved for peptidic antigens. The best studied zwitterionic polysaccharide, polysaccharide A1 (PS A1) is found on the capsule of the commensal bacteria Bacteroides fragilis . Its potent immunomodulatory properties have been linked to postoperative intra-abdominal abscess formation. Here, we report the synthesis of the PS A1 tetrasaccharide repeating unit (2) as a tool to investigate the biological role of this polysaccharide. A modular synthetic strategy originating from the reducing end of the PS A1 repeating unit was unsuccessful and illustrated the limitations of glycosylation reactions between highly armed glycosylating agents and poor nucleophiles. Thus, a [3 + 1] glycosylation relying on trisaccharide 5 and pyruvalated galactose 6 was used to complete the first total synthesis of the PS A1 repeating unit (2).

A highly alpha-selective glycosylation for the convenient synthesis of repeating alpha-(1-->4)-linked N-acetyl-galactosamine units

The repeating GalpNAc-alpha-(1-->4)-GalpNAc unit is part of a series of essential structures that can be found in many important biomolecules such as the glycoproteins and the O-antigenic polysaccharides of clinically important bacterial strains. In this paper, we describe an exclusive alpha-selective glycosylation reaction, using a 4,6-di-O-tert-butyldimethylsilyl-N-acetyloxazolidinone-protected thioglycoside as the glycosyl donor, under pre-activation conditions, with only half amount of the promoter, providing the product GalpNAc-alpha-(1-->4)-GalpNAc in high isolated yield. This reaction can be also applied to increasing the length of the repeating structure, which is of significant use in further synthesis of branched or linear oligosaccharides.

Studies on the Zn(II)-mediated electrophilic selenocyclization and elimination of 3,4-O-isopropylidene-protected hydroxyalkenyl sulfides: synthesis of a 2-phenylselenenyl glycal

Herein, we describe a mild and efficient Zn(II)-mediated electrophilic selenocyclization reaction of readily available and stable 3,4-O-isopropylidene-protected hydroxyalkenyl sulfides to 2-deoxy-2-phenylselenenyl-1-thio-glycosides. This material was transformed into a 2-phenylselenenyl glycal in a controlled manner using an activation-elimination sequence.

The first chemical synthesis of novel MeO-3-GlcUA derivative of hyaluronan-based disaccharide to elucidate the catalytic mechanism of hyaluronic acid synthases (HASs)

The first chemical synthesis of MeO-3-GlcUAβ(1→3)GlcNAc-UDP to elucidate the catalytic mechanism of hyaluronic acid synthases (HASs) is described. Construction of the desired β(1→3)-linked disaccharide 10 was achieved very efficiently by coupling MeO-3-GlcUA donor 3 with the suitable protected GlcNTroc acceptor 4 using BF(3(.) )Et(2)O as Lewis acid. Chemoselective removal of anomeric NAP, phosphorylation, hydrogenation, coupling with UMP-morpholidate and finally complete deprotection gave the target compound 1 in good yield.

Stereodirecting effect of the pyranosyl C-5 substituent in glycosylation reactions

The stereodirecting effect of the glycosyl C-5 substituent has been investigated in a series of d-pyranosyl thioglycoside donors and related to their preferred positions in the intermediate (3)H(4) and (4)H(3) half-chair oxacarbenium ions. Computational studies showed that an axially positioned C-5 carboxylate ester can stabilize the (3)H(4) half-chair oxacarbenium ion conformer by donating electron density from its carbonyl function into the electron-poor oxacarbenium ion functionality. A similar stabilization can be achieved by a C-5 benzyloxymethyl group, but the magnitude of this stabilization is significantly smaller than for the C-5 carboxylate ester. As a result, the preference of the C-5 benzyloxymethyl to occupy an axial position in the half-chair oxacarbenium ions is much reduced compared to the C-5 carboxylate ester. To minimize steric interactions, a C-5 methyl group prefers to adopt an equatorial position and therefore favors the (4)H(3) half-chair oxacarbenium ion. When all pyranosyl substituents occupy their favored position in one of the two intermediate half-chair oxacarbenium ions, highly stereoselective glycosylations can be achieved as revealed by the excellent beta-selectivity of mannuronate esters and alpha-selectivity of 6-deoxygulosides.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of a chitobiose-based peptide N-glycanase inhibitor library

Peptide N-glycanase (PNGase), the enzyme responsible for the deglycosylation of N-linked glycoproteins, has an active site related to that of cysteine proteases. Chitiobiose was equipped with electrophilic traps often used in cysteine protease inhibitors, and the resulting compounds were evaluated as PNGase inhibitors. We found that the electrophilic trap of the inhibitor has a great influence on the potency of the compounds with the chloromethyl ketone inhibitor being the first potent C-glycoside-based PNGase inhibitor.

Chemoenzymatic Syntheses of Tumor-Associated Carbohydrate Antigen Globo-H and Stage-Specific Embryonic Antigen 4

Gangliosides have attracted much attention due to their important biological properties. Herein, we report the first chemoenzymatic syntheses of two globo series of ganglioside oligosaccharides, Globo-H 1 and stage-specific embryonic antigen-4 (SSEA-4) 2. The common precursor SSEA-3 pentasaccharide for these two compounds was assembled rapidly using the pre-activation based one-pot glycosylation method. The stereoselectivity in forming the 1,2-cis linkage in SSEA-3 was attributed to a steric buttressing effect of the donor rather than electronic properties of the glycosyl donors. SSEA-3 was then successfully fucosylated by the fucosyltransferase WbsJ and sialylated by sialyltransferases CST-I and PmST1 producing Globo-H and SSEA-4 respectively.

Superarming the S-benzoxazolyl glycosyl donors by simple 2-O-benzoyl-3,4,6-tri-O-benzyl protection

The strategic placement of common protecting groups led to the discovery of a new method for "superarming" glycosyl donors. Conceptualized from our previous studies on the O-2/O-5 Cooperative Effect, it was determined that S-benzoxazolyl glycosyl donors possessing both a participating moiety at C-2 and an electronically armed lone pair at O-5, such as the superarmed glycosyl donor shown above, were exceptionally reactive.

A stable, commercially available sulfenyl chloride for the activation of thioglycosides in conjunction with silver trifluoromethanesulfonate

p-Nitrobenzenesulfenyl chloride is a stable commercially available sulfenyl chloride that, in conjunction with silver triflate, cleanly activates a wide range of thioglycosides for glycosylation at -78 degrees C in CH(2)Cl(2).