Heterologous over-expression of alpha-1,6-fucosyltransferase from Rhizobium sp.: application to the synthesis of the trisaccharide beta-D-GlcNAc(1-->4)-[alpha-L-Fuc-(1-->6)]-D-GLcNAc, study of the acceptor specificity and evaluation of polyhydroxylated indolizidines as inhibitors

Small molecule inhibitors of mammalian glycosylation

Glycans are one of the fundamental biopolymers encountered in living systems. Compared to polynucleotide and polypeptide biosynthesis, polysaccharide biosynthesis is a uniquely combinatorial process to which interdependent enzymes with seemingly broad specificities contribute. The resulting intracellular cell surface, and secreted glycans play key roles in health and disease, from embryogenesis to cancer progression. The study and modulation of glycans in cell and organismal biology is aided by small molecule inhibitors of the enzymes involved in glycan biosynthesis. In this review, we survey the arsenal of currently available inhibitors, focusing on agents which have been independently validated in diverse systems. We highlight the utility of these inhibitors and drawbacks to their use, emphasizing the need for innovation for basic research as well as for therapeutic applications.

Iminosugars as glycosyltransferase inhibitors

Iminosugars are naturally occurring carbohydrate analogues known since 1967. These natural compounds and hundreds of their synthetic derivatives prepared over five decades have been mainly exploited to inhibit the glycosidases, the enzymes catalysing the glycosidic bond cleavage, in order to find new drugs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and other diseases. However, iminosugars are also inhibitors of glycosyltransferases, the enzymes responsible for the synthesis of oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates. The selective inhibition of specific glycosyltransferases involved in cancer or bacterial infections could lead to innovative therapeutic agents. The synthesis and biological properties of all the iminosugars assayed to date as glycosyltransferase inhibitors are reviewed in the present article.

Systematical NMR analysis of swainsonine, a mycotoxin from endophytic fungus Alternaria oxytropis

Swainsonine (SW, 1), a unique indolizine with poly-hydroxyl groups, was re-isolated from the plant endophytic fungus Alternaria oxytropis. The structure (including planar structure and relative configuration) was systematically elucidated by NMR spectra (including ¹ H, ¹³ C, ¹ H-¹ H COSY, HMQC, HMBC, and NOESY spectra in DMSO-d₆ and in CD₃ OD); ¹ H NMR spectra of the modified Mosher's products were first used to determine the absolute configuration of SW. More importantly, the complex coupled features of H-7α, H-7β, and H-6α in the ¹ H NMR spectrum of (1) were analyzed in details, which will provide aids for the planar and relative configuration determination of analogs.

Recent Progress in Chemo-Enzymatic Methods for the Synthesis of N-Glycans

Asparagine (N)-linked glycosylation is one of the most common co- and post-translational modifications of both intra- and extracellularly distributing proteins, which directly affects their biological functions, such as protein folding, stability and intercellular traffic. Production of the structural well-defined homogeneous N-glycans contributes to comprehensive investigation of their biological roles and molecular basis. Among the various methods, chemo-enzymatic approach serves as an alternative to chemical synthesis, providing high stereoselectivity and economic efficiency. This review summarizes some recent advances in the chemo-enzymatic methods for the production of N-glycans, including the preparation of substrates and sugar donors, and the progress in the glycosyltransferases characterization which leads to the diversity of N-glycan synthesis. We discuss the bottle-neck and new opportunities in exploiting the chemo-enzymatic synthesis of N-glycans based on our research experiences. In addition, downstream applications of the constructed N-glycans, such as automation devices and homogeneous glycoproteins synthesis are also described.

Biosynthetic Machinery Involved in Aberrant Glycosylation: Promising Targets for Developing of Drugs Against Cancer

Cancer cells depend on altered metabolism and nutrient uptake to generate and keep the malignant phenotype. The hexosamine biosynthetic pathway is a branch of glucose metabolism that produces UDP-GlcNAc and its derivatives, UDP-GalNAc and CMP-Neu5Ac and donor substrates used in the production of glycoproteins and glycolipids. Growing evidence demonstrates that alteration of the pool of activated substrates might lead to different glycosylation and cell signaling. It is already well established that aberrant glycosylation can modulate tumor growth and malignant transformation in different cancer types. Therefore, biosynthetic machinery involved in the assembly of aberrant glycans are becoming prominent targets for anti-tumor drugs. This review describes three classes of glycosylation, O-GlcNAcylation, N-linked, and mucin type O-linked glycosylation, involved in tumor progression, their biosynthesis and highlights the available inhibitors as potential anti-tumor drugs.

Crossroads between Bacterial and Mammalian Glycosyltransferases

Bacterial glycosyltransferases (GT) often synthesize the same glycan linkages as mammalian GT; yet, they usually have very little sequence identity. Nevertheless, enzymatic properties, folding, substrate specificities, and catalytic mechanisms of these enzyme proteins may have significant similarity. Thus, bacterial GT can be utilized for the enzymatic synthesis of both bacterial and mammalian types of complex glycan structures. A comparison is made here between mammalian and bacterial enzymes that synthesize epitopes found in mammalian glycoproteins, and those found in the O antigens of Gram-negative bacteria. These epitopes include Thomsen–Friedenreich (TF or T) antigen, blood group O, A, and B, type 1 and 2 chains, Lewis antigens, sialylated and fucosylated structures, and polysialic acids. Many different approaches can be taken to investigate the substrate binding and catalytic mechanisms of GT, including crystal structure analyses, mutations, comparison of amino acid sequences, NMR, and mass spectrometry. Knowledge of the protein structures and functions helps to design GT for specific glycan synthesis and to develop inhibitors. The goals are to develop new strategies to reduce bacterial virulence and to synthesize vaccines and other biologically active glycan structures.

Synthesis of azasugars through a proline-catalyzed reaction

We report an efficient route to obtain azasugars from the enantiomerically pure L- and D-diethyltartrate. The key step is a proline-catalyzed aldol condensation, in which both enantiomers of proline have been used as catalyst, affording complementary anti-aldol products.

Cross-Metathesis of C-Allyl Iminosugars with Alkenyl Oxazolidines as a Key Step in the Synthesis of C-Iminoglycosyl α-Amino Acids.1 A Route to Iminosugar Containing C-Glycopeptides

[structures: see text] A general access to a novel class of sugar alpha-amino acids composed of iminofuranose and iminopyranose residues anomerically linked to the glycinyl group through an alkyl chain is described. A set of eight compounds was prepared by the same reaction sequence involving as an initial step the Grubbs Ru-carbene-catalyzed cross-metathesis (CM) of various N-Cbz-protected allyl C-iminoglycosides with N-Boc-vinyl- and N-Boc-allyloxazolidine. The isolated yields of the CM products (mixtures of E- and Z-alkenes) varied in the range 40-70%. Each mixture was elaborated by first reducing the carbon-carbon double bond using in situ generated diimide and then unveiling the N-Boc glycinyl group [CH(BocNH)CO2H] by oxidative cleavage of the oxazolidine ring by the Jones reagent. All amino acids were characterized as their methyl esters. The insertion of a model C-iminoglycosyl-2-aminopentanoic acid into a tripeptide via sequential carboxylic and amino group coupling with L-phenylalanine derivatives was carried out as a demonstration of the potential of these sugar amino acids in designed glycopeptide synthesis.

Enzymes in the synthesis of bioactive compounds: the prodigious decades

The growing demand for enantiomerically pure pharmaceuticals has impelled research on enzymes as catalysts for asymmetric synthetic transformations. However, the use of enzymes for this purpose was rather limited until the discovery that enzymes can work in organic solvents. Since the advent of the PCR the number of available enzymes has been growing rapidly and the tailor-made biocatalysts are becoming a reality. Thus, it has been possible the use of enzymes for the synthesis of new innovative medicines such as carbohydrates and their incorporation to modern methods for drug development, such as combinatorial chemistry. Finally, the genomic research is allowing the manipulation of whole genomes opening the door to the combinatorial biosynthesis of compounds. In this review, our intention is to highlight the main landmarks that have led to transfer the chemical efficiency shown by the enzymes in the cell to the synthesis of bioactive molecules in the lab during the last 20 years.

N-hydroxyethyl-piperidine and -pyrrolidine homoazasugars: preparation and evaluation of glycosidase inhibitory activity

An efficient and practical strategy for the synthesis of N-hydroxyethyl-1-deoxy-homonojirimycins 4 and 5 and N-hydroxyethyl-pyrrolidine homoazasugars 6 and 7 with full stereocontrol is being reported. The key step involved is the intermolecular Michael addition of benzylamine to D-glucose derived alpha,beta-unsaturated ester 8 followed by N-alkylation with ethyl bromoacetate. Reduction with LAH, acetylation, hydrogenation and protection with -Cbz group afforded compounds 14a and 14b. Removal of 1,2-acetonide functionality, hydrogenation and deacetylation afforded N-hydroxyethyl-D-gluco-1-deoxyhomonojirimycin (4) and N-hydroxyethyl-L-ido-1-deoxyhomonojirimycin (5), respectively. Compounds 14a and 14b on acetylation followed by removal of 1,2-acetonide functionality, sodium metaperiodate oxidation, hydrogenation and deacetylation gave 1,4,5-trideoxy-1,4-imino-N-hydroxyethyl-D-arabino-hexitol (6) and 1,4,5-trideoxy-1,4-imino-N-hydroxyethyl-L-xylo-hexitol (7), respectively. The glycosidase inhibition activity of compounds 4, 5, 6, 7, 16a and 16b was evaluated using sweet almond seed as a rich source of different glycosidases.

A general strategy for the practical synthesis of nojirimycin C-glycosides and analogues. Extension to the first reported example of an iminosugar 1-phosphonate

An efficient and versatile strategy for the synthesis of nojirimycin C-glycosides and related compounds with full stereocontrol is reported. The key steps of the process are the addition of organometallic reagents onto an L-sorbose-derived imine (13) followed by an internal reductive amination. The addition step, which controls the alpha- vs beta-configuration at the pseudoanomeric center in the final product, is highly diastereoselective (re-face addition), and the stereoselectivity can be effectively inverted by adding an external monodentate Lewis acid (si-face addition). The complete synthesis could be achieved in 10 steps only from commercially available 2,3;4,6-di-O-isopropylidene-alpha-L-sorbofuranose and provided alpha- or beta-1-C-substituted 1-deoxynojirimycin derivatives in 27-52% overall yield. The strategy was successfully extended to the first example of an iminosugar 1-phosphonate. The methodology provides access to a wide range of biologically relevant glycoconjugate mimetics in which the glycosidic function is replaced by an imino-C-glycosidic linkage.

C-terminal truncation of alpha 1,6-fucosyltransferase from Rhizobium sp. does not annul the transferase activity of the enzyme

Recently we have over-expressed the enzyme alpha 1,6-fucosyltransferase from Rhizobium sp. in Escherichia coli. In this heterologous system the enzyme was mainly expressed as inclusion bodies and the one that was expressed soluble showed a short-lasting activity in solution due to precipitation of the protein. A structural analysis of the sequence using the TMpred program predicted a highly hydrophobic region of 19 aa close to the C-terminal of the protein. In order to investigate the influence of this region on the formation of inclusion bodies and the precipitation from solution, we cloned a truncated version of the protein where a C-terminal fragment of 65 aa, including the predicted transmembrane-like region, was removed. The resulting protein was expressed in a soluble form without formation of inclusion bodies. The truncated protein catalyzed the transfer of a fucopyranosyl moiety from GDP-beta-L-Fucose to chitobiose. Comparison of the acceptor specificity between the truncated alpha 1,6-fucosyltransferase and the wild-type enzyme, showed a similar behavior for both enzymes. Our results indicate that the active center is not located in the C-terminal extreme of the protein in contrast to the case of the mammalian glycosyltransferases. Also, these results indicate that the alpha-6-motif III is not directly involved in the catalytic activity of the enzyme.