Two-step functionalization of oligosaccharides using glycosyl iodide and trimethylene oxide and its applications to multivalent glycoconjugates

NMR chemical shift prediction and structural elucidation of linker-containing oligo- and polysaccharides using the computer program CASPER

Carbohydrate structures containing alkyl groups as aglycones are useful for investigating enzyme activity and glycan-protein interactions. Moreover, linker-containing oligosaccharides with a spacer group are commonly used to print glycan microarrays or to prepare protein-conjugates as vaccine candidates. The structural accuracy of these synthesized glycans are essential for interpretation of results from biological experiments in which the compounds have been used and NMR spectroscopy can unravel and confirm their structures. An approach for efficient 1H and 13C NMR chemical shift assignments employed a parallel NOAH-10 measurement followed by NMR spin-simulation to refine the 1H NMR chemical shifts, as exemplified for a disaccharide with an azidoethyl group as an aglycone, the NMR chemical shifts of which have been used to enhance the quality of CASPER (http://www.casper.organ.su.se/casper/). The CASPER program has been further developed to aid characterization of linker-containing oligo- and polysaccharides, either by chemical shift prediction for comparison to experimental NMR data or as structural investigation of synthesized glycans based on acquired unassigned NMR data. The ability of CASPER to elucidate structures of linker-containing oligosaccharides is demonstrated and comparisons to assigned or unassigned NMR data show the utility of CASPER in supporting a proposed oligosaccharide structure. Prediction of NMR chemical shifts of an oligosaccharide, corresponding to the repeating unit of an O-antigen polysaccharide, having a linker as an aglycone and a non-natural substituent derivative thereof are presented to exemplify the diversity of structures handled. Furthermore, NMR chemical shift predictions of synthesized polysaccharides, corresponding to bacterial polysaccharides, containing a linker are described showing that in addition to oligosaccharide structures also polysaccharide structures having an aglycone spacer group can be analyzed by CASPER.

Diastereoselective Substitution Reactions of Acyclic β-Alkoxy Acetals via Electrostatically Stabilized Oxocarbenium Ion Intermediates

Substitution reactions of acyclic β-alkoxy acetals proceeded with generally high diastereoselectivities (>90:10) to form the anti product. Mechanistic experiments supplemented with computational studies suggest that, upon activation of the acetal, the resulting oxocarbenium ion is electrostatically stabilized by the β-alkoxy group. This stabilization defines the conformation of the reactive intermediate, which can be attacked preferentially from the more exposed face, leading to the observed products.

A practical and scalable synthesis of KRN7000 using glycosyl iodide as the glycosyl donor

KRN7000 is particularly useful because it is a powerful and specific CD1d agonist and has prompted intense interest in the context of immunology in the past 25 years. Its limited commercial availability and high price has led to the publication of many different syntheses. However, almost all of them focused on the methodology development rather than a scalable synthesis. Herein, we have described a practical and scalable procedure for the synthesis of KRN7000 basing on the glycosyl iodide method. This procedure involves total of eight steps to obtain the highly pure product KNR7000 on gram scale from the commercially available starting materials (d-galactose and the phytosphingosine) with only three column chromatographic purifications.

Step-economy synthesis of β-steryl sialosides using a sialyl iodide donor

Steryl glycosides are prevalent in nature and have unique biological activities dictated by sterol structure, sugar composition, and the stereochemical attachment of the aglycone. A single configurational switch can have profound biological consequences meriting the systematic study of structure and function relationships. Steryl congeners of N-acetyl neuraminic acid (NANA) impact neurobiological processes and may also mediate host/microbe interactions. In order to study these processes, a platform for the synthesis of β-steryl sialosides has been established. Promoter-free glycosidations using a novel α-linked sialyl iodide donor efficiently provide unique amphiphilic sialoglycoconjugates for examining bioactivities in various systems.

Anomeric O-Functionalization of Carbohydrates for Chemical Conjugation to Vaccine Constructs

Carbohydrates mediate a wide range of biological interactions, and understanding these processes benefits the development of new therapeutics. Isolating sufficient quantities of glycoconjugates from biological samples remains a significant challenge. With advances in chemical and enzymatic carbohydrate synthesis, the availability of complex carbohydrates is increasing and developing methods for stereoselective conjugation these polar head groups to proteins and lipids is critically important for pharmaceutical applications. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of commonly employed strategies for installing a functionalized linker at the anomeric position as well as examples of further transformations that have successfully led to glycoconjugation to vaccine constructs for biological evaluation as carbohydrate-based therapeutics.

Analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry: An update for 2013-2014

This review is the eighth update of the original article published in 1999 on the application of Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI) mass spectrometry to the analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates and brings coverage of the literature to the end of 2014. Topics covered in the first part of the review include general aspects such as theory of the MALDI process, matrices, derivatization, MALDI imaging, fragmentation, and arrays. The second part of the review is devoted to applications to various structural types such as oligo- and poly- saccharides, glycoproteins, glycolipids, glycosides, and biopharmaceuticals. Much of this material is presented in tabular form. The third part of the review covers medical and industrial applications of the technique, studies of enzyme reactions, and applications to chemical synthesis. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Mass Spec Rev 37:353-491, 2018.

Reagent Controlled Stereoselective Synthesis of α-Glucans

The development of a general glycosylation method that allows for the stereoselective construction of glycosidic linkages is a tremendous challenge. Because of the differences in steric and electronic properties of the building blocks used, the outcome of a glycosylation reaction can vary greatly when switching form one glycosyl donor-acceptor pair to another. We here report a strategy to install cis-glucosidic linkages in a fully stereoselective fashion that is under direct control of the reagents used to activate a single type of donor building block. The activating reagents are tuned to the intrinsic reactivity of the acceptor alcohol to match the reactivity of the glycosylating agent with the reactivity of the incoming nucleophile. A protecting group strategy is introduced that is based on the sole use of benzyl-ether type protecting groups to circumvent changes in reactivity as a result of the protecting groups. For the stereoselective construction of the α-glucosyl linkages to a secondary alcohol, a per-benzylated glusosyl imidate donor is activated with a combination of trimethylsilyltriflate and DMF, while activation of the same imidate donor with trimethylsilyl iodide in the presence of triphenylphosphine oxide allows for the stereoselective cis-glucosylation of primary alcohols. The effectiveness of the strategy is illustrated in the modular synthesis of a Mycobacterium tuberculosis nonasaccharide, composed of an α-(1-4)-oligoglucose backbone bearing different α-glucosyl branches.

Chemical O-Glycosylations: An Overview

The development of glycobiology relies on the sources of particular oligosaccharides in their purest forms. As the isolation of the oligosaccharide structures from natural sources is not a reliable option for providing samples with homogeneity, chemical means become pertinent. The growing demand for diverse oligosaccharide structures has prompted the advancement of chemical strategies to stitch sugar molecules with precise stereo- and regioselectivity through the formation of glycosidic bonds. This Review will focus on the key developments towards chemical O-glycosylations in the current century. Synthesis of novel glycosyl donors and acceptors and their unique activation for successful glycosylation are discussed. This Review concludes with a summary of recent developments and comments on future prospects.

Taming the Reactivity of Glycosyl Iodides To Achieve Stereoselective Glycosidation

Although glycosyl iodides have been known for more than 100 years, it was not until the 21st century that their full potential began to be harnessed for complex glycoconjugate synthesis. Mechanistic studies in the late 1990s probed glycosyl iodide formation by NMR spectroscopy and revealed important reactivity features embedded in protecting-group stereoelectronics. Differentially protected sugars having an anomeric acetate were reacted with trimethylsilyl iodide (TMSI) to generate the glycosyl iodides. In the absence of C-2 participation, generation of the glycosyl iodide proceeded by inversion of the starting anomeric acetate stereochemistry. Once formed, the glycosyl iodide readily underwent in situ anomerization, and in the presence of excess iodide, equilibrium concentrations of α- and β-iodides were established. Reactivity profiles depended upon the identity of the sugar and the protecting groups adorning it. Consistent with the modern idea of disarmed versus armed sugars, ester protecting groups diminished the reactivity of glycosyl iodides and ether protecting groups enhanced the reactivity. Thus, acetylated sugars were slower to form the iodide and anomerize than their benzylated analogues, and these disarmed glycosyl iodides could be isolated and purified, whereas armed ether-protected iodides could only be generated and reacted in situ. All other things being equal, the β-iodide was orders of magnitude more reactive than the thermodynamically more stable α-iodide, consistent with the idea of in situ anomerization introduced by Lemieux in the mid-20th century. Glycosyl iodides are far more reactive than the corresponding bromides, and with the increased reactivity comes increased stereocontrol, particularly when forming α-linked linear and branched oligosaccharides. Reactions with per-O-silylated glycosyl iodides are especially useful for the synthesis of α-linked glycoconjugates. Silyl ether protecting groups make the glycosyl iodide so reactive that even highly functionalized aglycon acceptors add. Following the coupling event, the TMS ethers are readily removed by methanolysis, and since all of the byproducts are volatile, multiple reactions can be performed in a single reaction vessel without isolation of intermediates. In this fashion, per-O-TMS monosaccharides can be converted to biologically relevant α-linked glycolipids in one pot. The stereochemical outcome of these reactions can also be switched to β-glycoside formation by addition of silver to chelate the iodide, thus favoring SN2 displacement of the α-iodide. While iodides derived from benzyl and silyl ether-protected oligosaccharides are susceptible to interglycosidic bond cleavage when treated with TMSI, the introduction of a single acetate protecting group prevents this unwanted side reaction. Partial acetylation of armed glycosyl iodides also attenuates HI elimination side reactions. Conversely, fully acetylated glycosyl iodides are deactivated and require metal catalysis in order for glycosidation to occur. Recent findings indicate that I2 activation of per-O-acetylated mono-, di-, and trisaccharides promotes glycosidation of cyclic ethers to give β-linked iodoalkyl glycoconjugates in one step. Products of these reactions have been converted into multivalent carbohydrate displays. With these synthetic pathways elucidated, chemical reactivity can be exquisitely controlled by the judicious selection of protecting groups to achieve high stereocontrol in step-economical processes.

Synthesis of cholesteryl-α-D-lactoside via generation and trapping of a stable β-lactosyl iodide

The generation of β-lactosyl iodide was carried out under non-in situ-anomerization, metal free conditions by reacting commercially available β-per-O-acetylated lactose with trimethylsilyl iodide (TMSI). The β-iodide was surprisingly stable as evidenced by NMR spectroscopy. Introduction of octanol or cholesterol under microwave conditions gave high yields of α-linked glycoconjugates. Careful analysis of the reaction products and mechanistic considerations suggest an acid catalyzed rearrangement that provides α-linked glycosylation products with a free C2-hydroxyl. Accessibility to these compounds may further advance glycolipidomic profiling of immune modulating bacterial derived-glycans.