Synthesis of a Sialic Acid Containing Complex-TypeN-Glycan on a Solid Support

Small tools for sweet challenges: advances in microfluidic technologies for glycan synthesis

Glycans, including oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates, play an integral role in modulating the biological functions of macromolecules. Many physiological and pathological processes are mediated by interactions between glycans, which has led to the use of glycans as biosensors for pathogen and biomarker detection. Elucidating the relationship between glycan structure and biological function is critical for advancing our understanding of the impact glycans have on human health and disease and for expanding the repertoire of glycans available for bioanalysis, especially for diagnostics. Such efforts have been limited by the difficulty in obtaining sufficient quantities of homogenous glycan samples needed to resolve the exact relationships between glycan structure and their structural or modulatory functions on a given glycoconjugate. Synthetic strategies offer a viable route for overcoming these technical hurdles. In recent years, microfluidics have emerged as powerful tools for realizing high-throughput and reproducible syntheses of homogenous glycans for the potential use in functional studies. This critical review provides readers with an overview of the microfluidic technologies that have been developed for chemical and enzymatic glycan synthesis. The advantages and limitations associated with using microreactor platforms to improve the scalability, productivity, and selectivity of glycosylation reactions will be discussed, as well as suggested future work that can address certain pitfalls.

Chemical Synthesis of Sialyl N-Glycans and Analysis of Their Recognition by Neuraminidase

The chemical synthesis of a fully sialylated tetraantennary N-glycan has been achieved for the first time by using the diacetyl strategy, in which NHAc is protected as NAc₂ to improve reactivity by preventing intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Another key was the glycosylation to the branched mannose in an ether solvent, which promoted the desired glycosylation by stabilizing the oxocarbenium ion intermediate. Furthermore, high α-selectivity of these glycosylation reactions was realized by utilizing remote participation. Two asymmetrically deuterium labeled sialyl N-glycans were also synthesized by the same strategy. The synthesized N-glycans were used to probe the molecular basis of H1N1 neuraminidase recognition. The asymmetrically deuterated N-glycans revealed a difference in the recognition of sialic acid on each branch. Meanwhile, the tetraantennary N-glycan was used to evaluate the effects of multivalency and steric hinderance by forming branching structures.

Glycan Assembly Strategy: From Concept to Application

Glycans have been hot topics in recent years due to their exhibition of numerous biological activities. However, the heterogeneity of their natural source and the complexity of their chemical synthesis impede the progress in their biological research. Thus, the development of glycan assembly strategies to acquire plenty of structurally well-defined glycans is an important issue in carbohydrate chemistry. In this review, the latest advances in glycan assembly strategies from concepts to their applications in carbohydrate synthesis, including chemical and enzymatic/chemo-enzymatic approaches, as well as solution-phase and solid-phase/tag-assisted synthesis, are summarized. Furthermore, the automated glycan assembly techniques are also outlined.

Manual and Automated Syntheses of the N-Linked Glycoprotein Core Glycans

Presented herein are two complementary approaches to the synthesis of the core N-glycan pentasaccharide. The first, a traditional manual approach in solution, makes use of the H-bond-mediated aglycone delivery method for the highly diastereoselective introduction of the β-mannosidic linkage at room temperature. The synthesis of the core pentasaccharide was also accomplished using an high-performance liquid chromatography-assisted automated approach. The overall assembly was swift (8 h) and efficient (31%).

Convergent Synthesis of a Bisecting N-Acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc)-Containing N-Glycan

The chemical synthesis of a bisecting N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc)-containing N-glycan was achieved by a convergent synthetic route through [4+2] and [6+2] glycosylations. This synthetic route reduced the number of reaction steps, although the key glycosylations were challenging in terms of yields and selectivities owing to steric hindrance at the glycosylation site and a lack of neighboring group participation. The yields of these glycosylations were enhanced by stabilizing the oxocarbenium ion intermediate through ether coordination. Glycosyl donor protecting groups were explored in an effort to realize perfect α selectivity by manipulating remote participation. The simultaneous glycosylations of a tetrasaccharide with two disaccharides was investigated to efficiently construct a bisecting GlcNAc-containing N-glycan.

A traceless photocleavable linker for the automated glycan assembly of carbohydrates with free reducing ends

We report a traceless photocleavable linker for the automated glycan assembly of carbohydrates with free reducing ends. The reductive-labile functionality in the linker tolerates all commonly used reagents and protocols for automated glycan assembly, as demonstrated with the successful preparation of nine plant cell wall-related oligosaccharides, and is cleaved by hydrogenolysis.

Chemical Synthesis of a Complex-Type N-Glycan Containing a Core Fucose

A chemical synthesis of a core fucose containing N-glycan was achieved. Asparagine was introduced at an early stage of the synthesis, and the sugar chain was convergently elongated. As for the fragment synthesis, we reinvestigated α-sialylation, β-mannosylation, and N-glycosylation to reveal that precise temperature control was essential for these glycosylations. Intermolecular hydrogen bonds involving acetamide groups were found to reduce the reactivity in glycosylations: the protection of NHAc as NAc₂ dramatically improved the reactivity. The dodecasaccharide-asparagine framework was constructed via the (4 + 4) glycosylation and the (4 + 8) glycosylation using the tetrasaccharide donor and the tetrasaccharide-asparagine acceptor. An ether-type solvent enhanced the yields of these key glycosylations between large substrates. After the whole deprotection of the dodecasaccharide, the target N-glycan was obtained.

Analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry: an update for 2009-2010

This review is the sixth update of the original article published in 1999 on the application of MALDI mass spectrometry to the analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates and brings coverage of the literature to the end of 2010. General aspects such as theory of the MALDI process, matrices, derivatization, MALDI imaging, arrays and fragmentation are covered in the first part of the review and applications to various structural typed constitutes the remainder. The main groups of compound that are discussed in this section are oligo and polysaccharides, glycoproteins, glycolipids, glycosides and biopharmaceuticals. Many of these applications are presented in tabular form. Also discussed are medical and industrial applications of the technique, studies of enzyme reactions and applications to chemical synthesis.

Chemical Approach to a Whole Body Imaging of Sialo-N-Linked Glycans

PET and noninvasive fluorescence imaging of the sialo-N-linked glycan derivatives are described. To establish the efficient labeling protocol for N-glycans and/or glycoconjugates, new labeling probes of fluorescence and ⁶⁸Ga-DOTA, as the positron emission nucleus for PET, through rapid 6π-azaelectrocyclization were designed and synthesized, (E)-ester aldehydes. The high reactivity of these probes enabled the labeling of lysine residues in peptides, proteins, and even amino groups on the cell surfaces at very low concentrations of the target molecules (~10⁻⁸ M) within a short reaction time (~5 min) to result in "selective" and "non-destructive" labeling of the more accessible amines. The first MicroPET of glycoproteins, ⁶⁸Ga-DOTA-orosomucoid and asialoorosomucoid, successfully visualized the differences in the circulatory residence of glycoproteins, in the presence or absence of sialic acids. In vivo dynamics of the new N-glycoclusters, prepared by the "self-activating" Huisgen cycloaddition reaction, could also be affected significantly by their partial structures at the non-reducing end, i.e., the presence or absence of sialic acids, and/or sialoside linkages to galactose. Azaelectrocyclization chemistry is also applicable to the engineering of the proteins and/or the cell surfaces by the oligosaccharides; lymphocytes chemically engineered by sialo-N-glycan successfully target the tumor implanted in BALB/C nude mice, detected by noninvasive fluorescence imaging.

Flow chemistry syntheses of natural products

The development and application of continuous flow chemistry methods for synthesis is a rapidly growing area of research. In particular, natural products provide demanding challenges to this developing technology. This review highlights successes in the area with an emphasis on new opportunities and technological advances.

Recent advances in the MS analysis of glycoproteins: Capillary and microfluidic workflows

Recent developments in bioanalytical instrumentation, MS detection, and computational data analysis approaches have provided researchers with capabilities for interrogating the complex cellular glycoproteome, to help gain a better insight into the cellular and physiological processes that are associated with a disease and to facilitate the efforts centered on identifying disease-specific biomarkers. This review describes the progress achieved in the characterization of protein glycosylation by using advanced capillary and microfluidic MS technologies. The major steps involved in large-scale glycoproteomic analysis approaches are discussed, with special emphasis given to workflows that have evolved around complex MS detection functions. In addition, quantitative analysis strategies are assessed, and the bioinformatics aspects of glycoproteomic data processing are summarized. The developments in commercial and custom fabricated microfluidic front-end platforms to ESI- and MALDI-MS instrumentation, for addressing major challenges in carbohydrate analysis such as sensitivity, throughput, and ability to perform structural characterization, are further evaluated and illustrated with relevant examples.

Synthesis of multiantennary complex type N-glycans by use of modular building blocks

A modular set of oligosaccharide building blocks was developed for the synthesis of multiantennary N-glycans of the complex type, which are commonly found on glycoproteins. The donor building blocks were laid out for the elongation of a core trisaccharide acceptor (beta-mannosyl chitobiose) conveniently protected with a single benzylidene moiety at the beta-mannoside. Through two consecutive regio- and stereoselective couplings the donors gave N-glycans with three to five antennae in high yields. Due to the consistent protection group pattern of the donors the deprotection of the final products can be performed by using a general reaction sequence.

Acid-mediated reactions under microfluidic conditions: a new strategy for practical synthesis of biofunctional natural products

Microfluidic conditions were applied to acid-mediated reactions, namely, glycosylation, reductive opening of the benzylidene acetal groups, and dehydration, which are the keys to the practical synthesis of N-glycans and the immunostimulating natural product, pristane. A distinctly different reactivity from that in conventional batch stirring was found; the vigorous micromixing of the reactants with the concentrated acids is critical especially for the "fast" reactions to be successful. Such a common feature might be due to the integration of all favorable aspects of microfluidic conditions, i.e., efficient mixing, precise temperature control, and the easy handling of the reactive intermediate by controlling the residence time. The microfluidic reactions cited in this review indicate the need to reinvestigate the traditional or imaginary reactions which have so far been performed and evaluated only in batch apparatus, and therefore they could be recognized as a new strategy in synthesizing natural products of prominent biological activity in a "practical" and a "industrial" manner.