Utilizing Reusable Catalyst Phosphotungstic Acid for the Synthesis of Thioglycoside from Per-O-acetyl Saccharides with Microwave-Assisted and De-O-acetylation with Methanol

Traditional methods for synthesizing complex oligosaccharides currently developed are not efficient, requiring a new glycosylation methodology. Herein, using phosphotungstic acid (PTA) as a catalyst has demonstrated to be a simple possibility for carbohydrate synthesis. The methodology is engineered into a PTA-catalyzed thioglycoside preparation under microwave conditions and de-O-acetylation of carbohydrates. These easier operations and convenient protocols display a wide substrate scope. Moreover, both methods can be developed into a one-pot reaction for the efficient synthesis of carbohydrate analogues.

Both d- and l-Glucose Polyphosphates Mimic d-myo-Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate: New Synthetic Agonists and Partial Agonists at the Ins(1,4,5)P3 Receptor

Chiral sugar derivatives are potential cyclitol surrogates of the Ca²⁺-mobilizing intracellular messenger d-myo-inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate [Ins(1,4,5)P₃]. Six novel polyphosphorylated analogues derived from both d- and l-glucose were synthesized. Binding to Ins(1,4,5)P₃ receptors [Ins(1,4,5)P₃R] and the ability to release Ca²⁺ from intracellular stores via type 1 Ins(1,4,5)P₃Rs were investigated. β-d-Glucopyranosyl 1,3,4-tris-phosphate, with similar phosphate regiochemistry and stereochemistry to Ins(1,4,5)P₃, and α-d-glucopyranosyl 1,3,4-tris-phosphate are full agonists, being equipotent and 23-fold less potent than Ins(1,4,5)P₃, respectively, in Ca²⁺-release assays and similar to Ins(1,4,5)P₃ and 15-fold weaker in binding assays. They can be viewed as truncated analogues of adenophostin A and refine understanding of structure-activity relationships for this Ins(1,4,5)P₃R agonist. l-Glucose-derived ligands, methyl α-l-glucopyranoside 2,3,6-trisphosphate and methyl α-l-glucopyranoside 2,4,6-trisphosphate, are also active, while their corresponding d-enantiomers, methyl α-d-glucopyranoside 2,3,6-trisphosphate and methyl α-d-glucopyranoside 2,4,6-trisphosphate, are inactive. Interestingly, both l-glucose-derived ligands are partial agonists: they are among the least efficacious agonists of Ins(1,4,5)P₃R yet identified, providing new leads for antagonist development.

"One-Pot" Protection, Glycosylation, and Protection-Glycosylation Strategies of Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates, which are ubiquitously distributed throughout the three domains of life, play significant roles in a variety of vital biological processes. Access to unique and homogeneous carbohydrate materials is important to understand their physical properties, biological functions, and disease-related features. It is difficult to isolate carbohydrates in acceptable purity and amounts from natural sources. Therefore, complex saccharides with well-defined structures are often most conviently accessed through chemical syntheses. Two major hurdles, regioselective protection and stereoselective glycosylation, are faced by carbohydrate chemists in synthesizing these highly complicated molecules. Over the past few years, there has been a radical change in tackling these problems and speeding up the synthesis of oligosaccharides. This is largely due to the development of one-pot protection, one-pot glycosylation, and one-pot protection-glycosylation protocols and streamlined approaches to orthogonally protected building blocks, including those from rare sugars, that can be used in glycan coupling. In addition, new automated strategies for oligosaccharide syntheses have been reported not only for program-controlled assembly on solid support but also by the stepwise glycosylation in solution phase. As a result, various sugar molecules with highly complex, large structures could be successfully synthesized. To summarize these recent advances, this review describes the methodologies for one-pot protection and their one-pot glycosylation into the complex glycans and the chronological developments associated with automated syntheses of oligosaccharides.

Synthesis and Application of Branched Type II Arabinogalactans

The synthesis of linear and (1 → 6)-branched β-(1 → 3)-d-galactans, structures found in plant arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs), is described. The synthetic strategy relies on iterative couplings of monosaccharide and disaccharide thioglycoside donors, followed by a late-stage glycosylation of heptagalactan backbone acceptors to introduce branching. A key finding from the synthetic study was the need to match protective groups in order to tune reactivity and ensure selectivity during the assembly. Carbohydrate microarrays were generated to enable the detailed epitope mapping of two monoclonal antibodies known to recognize AGPs: JIM16 and JIM133.

Stereospecific synthesis of methyl 2-amino-2-deoxy-(6S)-deuterio-α,β-d-glucopyranoside and methyl 2,6-diamino-2,6-dideoxy-(6R)-deuterio-α,β-d-glucopyranoside: Side chain conformations of the 2-amino-2-deoxy and 2,6-diamino-2,6-dideoxyglucopyranosides

The stereospecifically labeled 6-monodeuterio methyl 2,6-diamino-2,6-dideoxy-α- and β- d-glucopyranosides were synthesized with a view to determining their side chain conformations. NMR studies in D₂O at pH 5 and pH 11 reveal both anomers to adopt very predominantly the gt conformation consistent with the gauche conformation of 2-aminoethanol and its acetate salt. In contrast, as also revealed with the help of stereospecifically-labelled monodeuterio isotopomers, the methyl 2-amino-2-deoxy-α- and β- d-glucopyranosides are an approximately 1:1 mixture of gg and gt conformers as is found in glucopyranose itself.

Determination of the Influence of Side-Chain Conformation on Glycosylation Selectivity using Conformationally Restricted Donors

The synthesis of a series of conformationally locked mannopyranosyl thioglycosides in which the C6-O6 bond adopts either the gauche,gauche, gauche,trans, or trans,gauche conformation is described, and their influence on glycosylation stereoselectivity investigated. Two 4,6-O-benzylidene-protected mannosyl thioglycosides carrying axial or equatorial methyl groups at the 6-position were also synthesized and the selectivity of their glycosylation reactions studied to enable a distinction to be made between steric and stereoelectronic effects. The presence of an axial methoxy group at C6 in the bicyclic donor results in a decreased preference for formation of the β-mannoside, whereas an axial methyl group has little effect on selectivity. The result is rationalized in terms of through-space stabilization of a transient intermediate oxocarbenium ion by the axial methoxy group resulting in a higher degree of SN 1-like character in the glycosylation reaction. Comparisons are made with literature examples and exceptions are discussed in terms of pervading steric effects layered on top of the basic stereoelectronic effect.

One-pot synthesis of N-acetyl- and N-glycolylneuraminic acid capped trisaccharides and evaluation of their influenza A(H1 N1) inhibition

Human lung epithelial cells natively offer terminal N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) α(2→6)-linked to galactose (Gal) as binding sites for influenza virus hemagglutinin. N-Glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) in place of Neu5Ac is known to affect hemagglutinin binding in other species. Not normally generated by humans, Neu5Gc may find its way to human cells from dietary sources. To compare their influence in influenza virus infection, six trisaccharides with Neu5Ac or Neu5Gc α(2→6) linked to Gal and with different reducing end sugar units were prepared using one-pot assembly and divergent transformation. The sugar assembly made use of an N-phthaloyl-protected sialyl imidate for chemoselective activation and α-stereoselective coupling with a thiogalactoside. Assessment of cytopathic effect showed that the Neu5Gc-capped trisaccharides inhibited the viral infection better than their Neu5Ac counterparts.