5-N,4-O-Carbonyl-7,8,9-tri-O-chloroacetyl-Protected Sialyl Donor for the Stereoselective Synthesis of α-(2→9)-Tetrasialic Acid

Syntheses of α(2,8) Sialosides Containing NeuAc and NeuGc by Using Double Carbonyl-Protected N-Acyl Sialyl Donors

We report on the syntheses of NeuAc and NeuGc-containing glycosides via the use of double carbonyl-protected N-acetyl sialyl donors. The 7-O,9-O-carbonyl protection of an N-acyl-5-N,4-O-carbonyl-protected sialyl donor markedly increased the α-selectivity during glycosylation, particularly when glycosylating the C-8 hydroxyl group of sialic acids. The N-acyl carbamates were selectively opened with ethanethiol under basic conditions to provide N-acyl amines. It is noteworthy that N-glycolyl carbamate was more reactive to nucleophiles by comparison with the N-acetyl carbamate due to the electron-withdrawing oxygen in the N-acyl group and however, allowed selective opening of the carbamates without the loss of N-glycolyl groups. To demonstrate the utility of the approach, we began by synthesizing α(2,3) and α(2,6) sialyl galactosides. Glycosylation of the hydroxy groups of galactosides at the C-6 position with the NeuAc and NeuGc donors provided the corresponding sialyl galactoses in good yields with excellent α-selectivity. However, glycosylation of the 2,3-diol galactosyl acceptor selectively provided Siaα(2,2)Gal. Next, we prepared a series of α(2,8) disialosides composed of NeuAc and NeuGc. Glycosylation of NeuGc and NeuAc acceptors at the C-8 hydroxyl group with NeuGc and NeuAc sialyl donors provided the corresponding α(2,8) disialosides, and no significant differences were detected in the reactivities of these acceptors.

Integrated chemoenzymatic synthesis of a comprehensive sulfated ganglioside glycan library to decipher functional sulfoglycomics and sialoglycomics

Ganglioside glycans are ubiquitous and complex biomolecules that are involved in a wide range of biological functions and disease processes. Variations in sialylation and sulfation render the structural complexity and diversity of ganglioside glycans, and influence protein-carbohydrate interactions. Structural and functional insights into the biological roles of these glycans are impeded due to the limited accessibility of well-defined structures. Here we report an integrated chemoenzymatic strategy for expeditious and systematic synthesis of a comprehensive 65-membered ganglioside glycan library covering all possible patterns of sulfation and sialylation. This strategy relies on the streamlined modular assembly of three common sialylated precursors by highly stereoselective iterative sialylation, modular site-specific sulfation through flexible orthogonal protecting-group manipulations and enzymatic-catalysed diversification using three sialyltransferase modules and a galactosidase module. These diverse ganglioside glycans enable exploration into their structure-function relationships using high-throughput glycan microarray technology, which reveals that different patterns of sulfation and sialylation on these glycans mediate their unique binding specificities.

Advanced Chemical Methods for Stereoselective Sialylation and Their Applications in Sialoglycan Syntheses

Sialic acid is an important component of cell surface glycans, which are responsible for many vital body functions and should therefore be thoroughly studied to understand their biological roles and association with disorders. The difficulty of isolating large quantities of homogenous-state sialoglycans from natural sources has inspired the development of the corresponding chemical synthesis methods affording acceptable purities, yields, and amounts. However, the related syntheses are challenging because of the difficulties in α-glycosylation of sialic acid, which arises from its certain structural features such as the absence of a stereodirecting group at the C3 position and presence of carboxyl group at the anomeric position. Moreover, the structural complexities of sialoglycans with diverse numbers and locations of sialic acid on the glycan chains pose additional barriers. Thus, efficient α-stereoselective routes to sialosides remain highly sought after, although various types of sialyl donors/acceptors have been developed for the straightforward synthesis of α-sialosides. Herein, we review the latest progress in the α-stereoselective synthesis of sialosides and their applications in the preparation of gangliosides and other sialoglycans.

Synthesis and Evaluation of Liposomal Anti-GM3 Cancer Vaccine Candidates Covalently and Noncovalently Adjuvanted by αGalCer

GM3, a typical tumor-associated carbohydrate antigen, is considered as an important target for cancer vaccine development, but its low immunogenicity limits its application. αGalCer, an iNKT cell agonist, has been employed as an adjuvant via a unique immune mode. Herein, we prepared and investigated two types of antitumor vaccine candidates: (a) self-adjuvanting vaccine GM3-αGalCer by conjugating GM3 with αGalCer and (b) noncovalent vaccine GM3-lipid/αGalCer, in which GM3 is linked with lipid anchor and coassembled with αGalCer. This demonstrated that βGalCer is an exceptionally optimized lipid anchor, which enables the noncovalent vaccine candidate GM3-βGalCer/αGalCer to evoke a comparable antibody level to GM3-αGalCer. However, the antibodies induced by GM3-αGalCer are better at recognition B16F10 cancer cells and more effectively activate the complement system. Our study highlights the importance of vaccine constructs utilizing covalent or noncovalent assembly between αGalCer with carbohydrate antigens and choosing an appropriate lipid anchor for use in noncovalent vaccine formulation.

A Modular Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of Disialosyl Globopentaosylceramide (DSGb5Cer) Glycan

The total synthesis of the oligosaccharide moiety of disialosyl globopentaosylceramide (DSGb5 Cer), a dominant ganglioside isolated from malignant renal cell carcinoma tissues, is reported. The synthetic strategy relies on a chemical α(2,6)-sialylation at the internal GalNAc unit of a Gb5 pentasaccharide backbone that furnishes a Neu5Acα(2,6)GalNAc-linked hexasaccharide, suitable for an enzymatic α(2,3)-sialylation of the terminal Gal residue to construct a heptasaccharide glycan. Convergent access to this key α(2,6)-sialylated hexasaccharide was also achieved through a [3+3] glycosylation building upon a Galβ(1,3)[Neu5Acα(2,6)]GalNAc-based trisaccharide donor and a Gb3 acceptor. The synthetic DSGb5 glycan bearing a 6-azidohexyl aglycon at the reducing end could undergo further regioselective functionalization. This approach represents a viable chemoenzymatic method for accessing complex ganglioside glycans and should be useful for the synthesis and biological investigation of DSGb5 derivatives.

Chemical Synthesis of Glycosides of N-Acetylneuraminic Acid

Investigations of methodologies aimed on improving the stereoselective synthesis of sialosides and the efficient assembly of sialic acid glycoconjugates has been the mission of dedicated research groups from the late 1960s. This review presents major accomplishments in the field, with the emphasis on significant breakthroughs and influential synthetic strategies of the last decade.

Synthesis and Evaluation of GM2-Monophosphoryl Lipid A Conjugate as a Fully Synthetic Self-Adjuvant Cancer Vaccine

An efficient method was developed for the synthesis of a GM2 derivative suitable for the conjugation with various biomolecules. This GM2 derivative was covalently linked to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) and monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) to form novel therapeutic cancer vaccines. Immunological evaluations of the resultant conjugates in mice revealed that they elicited robust GM2-specific overall and IgG antibody responses. Moreover, the GM2-MPLA conjugate was disclosed to elicit strong immune responses without the use of an adjuvant, proving its self-adjuvant property. The antisera of both conjugates showed strong binding and mediated similarly effective complement-dependent cytotoxicity to GM2-expressing cancer cell line MCF-7. Based on these results, it was concluded that both GM2-MPLA and GM2-KLH are promising candidates as therapeutic cancer vaccines, whereas fully synthetic GM2-MPLA, which has homogeneous and well-defined structure and self-adjuvant property, deserves more attention and studies.

Synthesis and immunological study of α-2,9-oligosialic acid conjugates as anti-group C meningitis vaccines

α-2,9-Di-, tri-, tetra-, and pentasialic acids were prepared and conjugated with a carrier protein. The resultant glycoconjugates elicited robust T cell-mediated immunity in mice. α-2,9-Trisialic acid was identified as a promising antigen for developing glycoconjugate vaccines against group C Neisseria meningitidis.

Automated solid-phase synthesis of oligosaccharides containing sialic acids

A sialic acid glycosyl phosphate building block was designed and synthesized. This building block was used to prepare α-sialylated oligosaccharides by automated solid-phase synthesis selectively.

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.

Synthesis and labeling of α-(2,9)-trisialic acid with cyanine dyes for imaging of glycan-binding receptors on living cells

The cyanine tagged oligosialic acid was utilized as an efficient fluorescent probe to image the glycan-binding receptors on PC-12 cells.

Chemoselective per-O-trimethylsilylation and homogeneous N-functionalisation of amino sugars

HomogeneousN-functionalisation of amino sugars can be achievedviaefficient CH₃CN-promoted hexamethyldisilazane per-O-trimethylsilylation.

Chemical approach for the syntheses of GM4 isomers with sialic acid to non-natural linkage positions on galactose

Cell-surface glycans containing sialic acid are involved in various biological phenomena. However, the syntheses of GM4 derivatives with (2 → 2) and (2 → 4) linkages have not been investigated to date. In this study, sialylation of all of the hydroxyl groups on galactose were investigated for the syntheses of GM4 isomers. Regioselective sialylation was achieved via protection of galactosyl acceptors using electron-rich benzyl groups. These synthetic sialylated glycans will prove to be useful tools for studying unidentified carbohydrate-mediated biological roles.

Synthesis of the tumor associative α-aminooxy disaccharide of the TF antigen and its conjugation to a polysaccharide immune stimulant

The α-aminooxy derivative of the Thomsen-Friedenriech tumor associated carbohydrate antigen has been synthesized in 11 steps utilizing a D-GalN3 acceptor carrying a pre-installed α-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl moiety. The natural α linkage was prepared in high selectivity employing a suitably protected D-GalN3-thioglycoside donor with N-hydroxysuccinimide. With access to α-TF-ONH2, the preparation of the TF-PS A1 vaccine candidate ensued smoothly through oxime bond formation.

Comparative studies on the O-sialylation with four different α/β-oriented (N-acetyl)-5-N,4-O-carbonyl-protected p-toluenethiosialosides as donors

Four types of 5-N,4-O-carbonyl-protected p-toluenethiosialosides were synthesized and their couplings with different acceptors were thoroughly investigated. The results indicate that the sialyl donor structure, the amount of glycosyl acceptor, and the detailed promotion conditions have great influence on the sialylation stereoselectivties and product yields. Under the (p-Tol)2SO/Tf2O activation conditions, the glycosylations with simple alcohols provided declined α-selectivities and higher yields with increasing the amounts of acceptors from 1.1 equiv to 2.0equiv. However, the outcome of same sialylation was independent of the relative amounts of sugar alcohol acceptors. With NIS/TfOH as promoter, the α-selectivities of the sialylations were significantly improved compared with the cases activated by (p-Tol)2SO/Tf2O. In general, the difference in configuration of N-acetylated sialyl donors (D2 and D4) has little effect on the sialylation yield and stereoselectivity. In contrast, the N-deacetylated α/β sialyl donors (D1 and D3) show complex sialylation profiles with different acceptors.

Synthesis of sialic acid-containing saccharides

Sialic acids are a diverse family of negatively charged monosaccharides with a shared nine-carbon carboxylated backbone, and they often serve as the terminal positions of cell surface glycoproteins and glycolipids. Sialic acids play essential roles in mediating or modulating numerous pathological, biological, and immunological recognition events. Advances in synthesis have provided chemically well-defined and structurally homogeneous sialic acid-containing carbohydrates that are crucial for studying glycobiology. This review highlights recent innovations in the chemical and chemoenzymatic synthesis of difficult α-sialosides, with a particular focus on methods developed for α-selective sialylation in the synthesis of O-linked and S-linked oligosialic acids.

Toward automated oligosaccharide synthesis

Carbohydrates have been shown to play important roles in biological processes. The pace of development in carbohydrate research is, however, relatively slow due to the problems associated with the complexity of carbohydrate structures and the lack of general synthetic methods and tools available for the study of this class of biomolecules. Recent advances in synthesis have demonstrated that many of these problems can be circumvented. In this Review, we describe the methods developed to tackle the problems of carbohydrate-mediated biological processes, with particular focus on the issue related to the development of the automated synthesis of oligosaccharides. Further applications of carbohydrate microarrays and vaccines to human diseases are also highlighted.