Halide promoted organotin-mediated carbohydrate benzylation: mechanism and application

Effective Organotin-Mediated Regioselective Functionalization of Unprotected Carbohydrates

Regioselective functionalization of unprotected carbohydrates at a secondary OH group in the presence of primary OH groups based on the commonly used organotin-mediated reaction has been improved. We found that the preactivation of the dibutylstannylene acetal intermediate with tetrabutylammonium bromide in toluene is a key to the improved condition for the efficient, high-yielding, and regioselective tosylation, benzoylation, or benzylation of unprotected carbohydrates. The counteranion of tetrabutylammonium ion with a weak coordination ability plays a crucial role in the improved regioselective reactions. A convenient access to the intermediates of synthetic value is also demonstrated in the organotin-mediated regioselective tosylation of unprotected carbohydrates, followed by the nucleophilic inversion reaction to give sulfur-containing and azide-modified carbohydrates.

Chemical Synthesis of a Keto Sugar Nucleotide

Keto sugar nucleotides (KSNs) are common and versatile precursors to various deoxy sugar nucleotides, which are substrates for the corresponding glycosyltransferases involved in the biosynthesis of glycoproteins, glycolipids, and natural products. However, there has been no KSN synthesized chemically due to the inherent instability. Herein, the first chemical synthesis of the archetypal KSN TDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-d-glucose (1) is achieved by an efficient and optimized route, providing feasible access to other KSNs and analogues, thereby opening a new avenue for new applications.

D-Allose, a rare sugar. Synthesis of D-allopyranosyl acceptors from glucose, and their regioselectivity in glycosidation reactions

Although D-allose (D-All) is a sugar with low natural abundance, it has great pharmacological and alimentary potential due to its biological properties. However, its chemistry, regarding the regioselectivity in protective reactions and glycosidations, has been scarcely explored. Glycobiological studies require appreciable quantities of carbohydrates with defined structures and high purity. Thus, the development of efficient strategies for their synthesis is crucial. In this frame, the knowledge of the regioselectivity between different hydroxyl groups of glycosyl acceptors is valuable because it allows minimizing the use of protecting groups. We have long been interested in the relative reactivity of OH-3 and OH-4 of glycosyl acceptors in glycosidation reactions. In this paper we synthesized D-allose glycopyranosyl acceptors with free OH-3 and OH-4 from D-Glc precursors. We assessed glycosidations with galactose trichloroacetimidates as donors and the experimental results were compared with those obtained by molecular modeling. Axial O-3 was the preferred site of glycosylation for α-anomers, whereas equatorial O-4 was the preferred site for a β-anomer. A good correlation between the experimental and modeling results was observed using atomic charges and cationic intermediates, although Fukui indices did not predict adequately the experimental results. The achieved regioselectivities are useful for the efficient design of oligosaccharide synthesis containing D-All moieties.

Synthesis of carbohydrate building blocks via regioselective uniform protection/deprotection strategies

Discussed herein is the synthesis of partially protected carbohydrates by manipulating only one type of a protecting group for a given substrate. The first focus of this review is the uniform protection of an unprotected starting material in a way that only one (or two) hydroxyl group remains unprotected. The second focus involves regioselective partial deprotection of uniformly protected compounds in a way that only one (or two) hydroxyl group becomes liberated.

Rational design of reversible inhibitors for trehalose 6-phosphate phosphatases

In some organisms, environmental stress triggers trehalose biosynthesis that is catalyzed collectively by trehalose 6-phosphate synthase, and trehalose 6-phosphate phosphatase (T6PP). T6PP catalyzes the hydrolysis of trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) to trehalose and inorganic phosphate and is a promising target for the development of antibacterial, antifungal and antihelminthic therapeutics. Herein, we report the design, synthesis and evaluation of a library of aryl d-glucopyranoside 6-sulfates to serve as prototypes for small molecule T6PP inhibitors. Steady-state kinetic techniques were used to measure inhibition constants (K_i) of a panel of structurally diverse T6PP orthologs derived from the pathogens Brugia malayi, Ascaris suum, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Shigella boydii and Salmonella typhimurium. The binding affinities of the most active inhibitor of these T6PP orthologs, 4-n-octylphenyl α-d-glucopyranoside 6-sulfate (9a), were found to be in the low micromolar range. The K_i of 9a with the B. malayi T6PP ortholog is 5.3 ± 0.6 μM, 70-fold smaller than the substrate Michaelis constant. The binding specificity of 9a was demonstrated using several representative sugar phosphate phosphatases from the HAD enzyme superfamily, the T6PP protein fold family of origin. Lastly, correlations drawn between T6PP active site structure, inhibitor structure and inhibitor binding affinity suggest that the aryl d-glucopyranoside 6-sulfate prototypes will find future applications as a platform for development of tailored second-generation T6PP inhibitors.

Regioselective alkylation of carbohydrates and diols: a cheaper iron catalyst, new applications and mechanism

We developed a much cheaper iron catalyst, Fe(dipm)₃, which has a good catalytic efficiency in regioselective alkylation of carbohydrates.

Synthesis, antimicrobial and cytotoxicity evaluation of new cholesterol congeners

3β-Azidocholest-5-ene (3) and (3β)-3-(prop-2-yn-1-yloxy)cholest-5-ene (10) were prepared as substrates to synthesize a variety of three-motif pharmacophoric conjugates through CuAAC. Basically, these conjugates included cholesterol and 1,2,3-triazole moieties, while the third, the pharmacophore, was either a chalcone, a lipophilic residue or a carbohydrate tag. These compounds were successfully prepared in good yields and characterized by NMR, MS and IR spectroscopic techniques. Chalcone conjugate 6c showed the best antimicrobial activity, while the lactoside conjugate 27 showed the best cytotoxic effect in vitro.

Pyranoside-into-furanoside rearrangement: new reaction in carbohydrate chemistry and its application in oligosaccharide synthesis

Great interest in natural furanoside-containing compounds has challenged the development of preparative methods for their synthesis. Herein a novel reaction in carbohydrate chemistry, namely a pyranoside-into-furanoside (PIF) rearrangement permitting the transformation of selectively O-substituted pyranosides into the corresponding furanosides is reported. The discovered process includes acid-promoted sulfation accompanied by rearrangement of the pyranoside ring into a furanoside ring followed by solvolytic O-desulfation. This process, which has no analogy in organic chemistry, was shown to be a very useful tool for the synthesis of furanoside-containing complex oligosaccharides, which was demonstrated by synthesizing disaccharide derivatives α-D-Galp-(1→3)-β-D-Galf-OPr, 3-O-s-lactyl-β-D-Galf-(1→3)-β-D-Glcp-OPr, and α-L-Fucf-(1→4)-β-D-GlcpA-OPr related to polysaccharides from the bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterococcus faecalis and the brown seaweed Chordaria flagelliformis.

H-bonding activation in highly regioselective acetylation of diols

H-bonding activation in the regioselective acetylation of vicinal and 1,3-diols is presented. Herein, the acetylation of the hydroxyl group with acetic anhydride can be activated by the formation of H-bonds between the hydroxyl group and anions. The reaction exhibits high regioselectivity when a catalytic amount of tetrabutylammonium acetate is employed. Mechanistic studies indicated that acetate anion forms dual H-bonding complexes with the diol, which facilitates the subsequent regioselective monoacetylation.