Synthesis of a beta-(1-->3)-D-rhamnotetraose by a one-pot, multiple radical fragmentation

Chemical approaches for the stereocontrolled synthesis of 1,2-cis-β-D-rhamnosides

In carbohydrate chemistry, the stereoselective synthesis of 1,2-cis-glycosides remains a formidable challenge. This complexity is comparable to the synthesis of 1,2-cis-β-D-mannosides, primarily due to the adverse anomeric and Δ-2 effects. Over the past decades, to attain β-stereoselectivity in D-rhamnosylation, researchers have devised numerous direct and indirect methodologies, including the hydrogen-bond-mediated aglycone delivery (HAD) method, the synthesis of β-D-mannoside paired with C6 deoxygenation, and the combined approach of 1,2-trans-glycosylation and C2 epimerization. This review elaborates on the advancements in β-D-rhamnosylation and its implications for the total synthesis of tiacumicin B and other physiologically relevant glycans.

Deoxy sugars. General methods for carbohydrate deoxygenation and glycosidation

Deoxy sugars represent an important class of carbohydrates, present in a large number of biomolecules involved in multiple biological processes. In various antibiotics, antimicrobials, and therapeutic agents the presence of deoxygenated units has been recognized as responsible for biological roles, such as adhesion or great affinity to receptors, or improved efficacy. The characterization of glycosidases and glycosyltranferases requires substrates, inhibitors and analogous compounds. Deoxygenated sugars are useful for carrying out specific studies for these enzymes. Deoxy sugars, analogs of natural substrates, may behave as substrates or inhibitors, or may not interact with the enzyme. They are also important for glycodiversification studies of bioactive natural products and glycobiological processes, which could contribute to discovering new therapeutic agents with greater efficacy by modification or replacement of sugar units. Deoxygenation of carbohydrates is, thus, of great interest and numerous efforts have been dedicated to the development of methods for the reduction of sugar hydroxyl groups. Given that carbohydrates are the most important renewable chemicals and are more oxidized than fossil raw materials, it is also important to have methods to selectively remove oxygen from certain atoms of these renewable raw materials. The different methods for removal of OH groups of carbohydrates and representative or recent applications of them are presented in this chapter. Glycosidic bonds in general, and 2-deoxy glycosidic linkages, are included. It is not the scope of this survey to cover all reports for each specific technique.

Progress and challenges in the synthesis of sequence controlled polysaccharides

The sequence, length and substitution of a polysaccharide influence its physical and biological properties. Thus, sequence controlled polysaccharides are important targets to establish structure-properties correlations. Polymerization techniques and enzymatic methods have been optimized to obtain samples with well-defined substitution patterns and narrow molecular weight distribution. Chemical synthesis has granted access to polysaccharides with full control over the length. Here, we review the progress towards the synthesis of well-defined polysaccharides. For each class of polysaccharides, we discuss the available synthetic approaches and their current limitations.

Recent advances in β-l-rhamnosylation

l-Rhamnose forms the key components of important antigenic oligo- and polysaccharides of a variety of pathogens. Obtaining 1,2-cis stereoselectivity in the glycosylation of l-rhamnoside is quite challenging due to the unavailability of neighboring group participation and disfavoring of the anomeric effect and stereoelectronic effect of the substituents on the C-2 axial position. Nevertheless, various methodologies have been developed exploiting diverse pathways for obtaining β-stereoselectivity in the glycosylation of l-rhamnose. This review describes the recent advances in β-l-rhamnosylation and its applications in the total synthesis of β-l-rhamnose-containing biologically important oligosaccharides.

En Route to the Transformation of Glycoscience: A Chemist's Perspective on Internal and External Crossroads in Glycochemistry

Carbohydrate chemistry is an essential component of the glycosciences and is fundamental to their progress. This Perspective takes the position that carbohydrate chemistry, or glycochemistry, has reached three crossroads on the path to the transformation of the glycosciences, and illustrates them with examples from the author's and other laboratories. The first of these potential inflexion points concerns the mechanism of the glycosylation reaction and the role of protecting groups. It is argued that the experimental evidence supports bimolecular SN2-like mechanisms for typical glycosylation reactions over unimolecular ones involving stereoselective attack on naked glycosyl oxocarbenium ions. Similarly, it is argued that the experimental evidence does not support long-range stereodirecting participation of remote esters through bridged bicyclic dioxacarbenium ions in organic solution in the presence of typical counterions. Rational design and improvement of glycosylation reactions must take into account the roles of the counterion and of concentration. A second crossroads is that between mainstream organic chemistry and glycan synthesis. The case is made that the only real difference between glycan and organic synthesis is the formation of C-O rather than C-C bonds, with diastereocontrol, strategy, tactics, and elegance being of critical importance in both areas: mainstream organic chemists should feel comfortable taking this fork in the road, just as carbohydrate chemists should traveling in the opposite direction. A third crossroads is that between carbohydrate chemistry and medicinal chemistry, where there are equally many opportunities for traffic in either direction. The glycosciences have advanced enormously in the past decade or so, but creativity, input, and ingenuity of scientists from all fields is needed to address the many sophisticated challenges that remain, not the least of which is the development of a broader and more general array of stereospecific glycosylation reactions.

Chemical Synthesis Elucidates the Key Antigenic Epitope of the Autism-Related Bacterium Clostridium bolteae Capsular Octadecasaccharide

The gut pathogen Clostridium bolteae has been associated with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To create vaccines against C. bolteae, it is important to identify exact protective epitopes of the immunologically active capsular polysaccharide (CPS). Here, a series of C. bolteae CPS glycans, up to an octadecasaccharide, was prepared. Key to achieving the total syntheses is a [2+2] coupling strategy based on a β-d-Rhap-(1→3)-α-d-Manp repeating unit that in turn was accessed by a stereoselective β-d-rhamnosylation. The 4,6-O-benzylidene-induced conformational locking is a powerful strategy for forming a β-d-mannose-type glycoside. An indirect strategy based on C2 epimerization of β-d-quinovoside was efficiently achieved by Swern oxidation and borohydride reduction. Sequential glycosylation, and regioselective and global deprotection produced the disaccharide and tetrasaccharide, up to the octadecasaccharide. Glycan microarray analysis of sera from rabbits immunized with inactivated C. bolteae bacteria revealed a humoral immune response to the di- and tetrasaccharide, but none of the longer sequences. The tetrasaccharide may be a key motif for designing glycoconjugate vaccines against C. bolteae.

Stereoselective synthesis of β-rhamnopyranosides via gold(i)-catalyzed glycosylation with 2-alkynyl-4-nitro-benzoate donors

An effective β-rhamnosylation protocol has been developed by using α-rhamnopyranosyl ortho-hexynyl-para-nitro-benzoates as donors and Ph₃PAuBArF4 as a catalyst.

Efficient routes toward the synthesis of the D-rhamno-trisaccharide related to the A-band polysaccharide of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The present work describes efficient avenues for the synthesis of the trisaccharide repeating unit [α-D-Rhap-(1→3)-α-D-Rhap-(1→3)-α-D-Rhap] associated with the A-band polysaccharide of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. One of the key steps involved 6-O-deoxygenation of either partially or fully acylated 4,6-O-benzylidene-1-thiomannopyranoside by radical-mediated redox rearrangement in high yields and regioselectivity. The D-rhamno-thioglycosides so obtained allowed efficient access to the trisaccharide target via stepwise glycosylation as well as a one-pot glycosylation protocol. In a different approach, a 4,6-O-benzylidene D-manno-trisaccharide derivative was synthesized, which upon global 6-O-deoxygenation followed by deprotection generated the target D-rhamno-trisaccharide. The application of the reported regioselective radical-mediated deoxygenation on 4,6-O-benzylidene D-manno thioglycoside (hitherto unexplored) has potential for ramification in the field of synthesis of oligosaccharides based on 6-deoxy hexoses.

Methodology development and physical organic chemistry: a powerful combination for the advancement of glycochemistry

This Perspective outlines work in the Crich group on the diastereoselective synthesis of the so-called difficult classes of glycosidic bond: the 2-deoxy-β-glycopyranosides, the β-mannopyranosides, the α-sialosides, the α-glucopyranosides, and the β-arabinofuranosides with an emphasis on the critical interplay between mechanism and methodology development.

Protecting groups in carbohydrate chemistry: influence on stereoselectivity of glycosylations

Saccharides are polyhydroxy compounds, and their synthesis requires complex protecting group manipulations. Protecting groups are usually used to temporarily mask a functional group which may interfere with a certain reaction, but protecting groups in carbohydrate chemistry do more than protecting groups usually do. Particularly, protecting groups can participate in reactions directly or indirectly, thus affecting the stereochemical outcomes, which is important for synthesis of oligosaccharides. Herein we present an overview of recent advances in protecting groups influencing stereoselectivity in glycosylation reactions, including participating protecting groups, and conformation-constraining protecting groups in general.

Stereocontrolled synthesis of D- and L-beta-rhamnopyranosides with 4-O-6-S-alpha-cyanobenzylidene-protected 6-thiorhamnopyranosyl thioglycosides

The synthesis of both enantiomers of a 4-O-6-S-alpha-cyanobenzylidene-protected 6-thiorhamnopyranosyl thioglycoside is described starting from D-mannnose and L-arabinose derivatives for the D- and L-series, respectively. This donor is effective in the preparation of the corresponding beta-glycosides using the 1-benzenesulfinyl piperidine/trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride protocol. Following desulfurization and concomitant debenzylation with Raney nickel, the so-formed 6-thio-beta-mannosides are converted in high yield to the beta-rhamnopyranosides.

Convergent synthesis of a beta-(1-->3)-mannohexaose

An as yet unknown beta-(1-->3)-mannohexaose has been synthesized by a block route involving the coupling of two trisaccharides. Comparison of three closely related attempted mannohexaose syntheses reinforces the influence of subtle matching and/or mismatching interactions on the outcome of convergent oligosaccharide synthesis.

Direct stereocontrolled synthesis of 3-amino-3-deoxy-beta-mannopyranosides: importance of the nitrogen protecting group on stereoselectivity

The highly stereocontrolled synthesis of the 3-amino-3-deoxy-beta-mannopyranosides is achieved by means of thioglycoside donors protected with a 4,6-O-benzylidene or alkylidene acetal and a benzylidene imine group. Among the various nitrogen protecting groups investigated only the Schiff's base was found to give high beta-selectivity. N-Phthalimido and N-acetamido protected donors were found to be highly alpha-selective, whereas 3-azido-3-deoxy glycosyl donors gave intermediate selectivity. The reasons for the protecting group dependency are discussed in terms of the change in the O2-C2-C3-N3 torsional interaction on conversion of the covalent glycosyl triflates to the transient oxacarbenium ions.

Stereocontrolled glycoside and glycosyl ester synthesis. neighboring group participation and hydrogenolysis of 3-(2'-benzyloxyphenyl)-3,3-dimethylpropanoates

[reaction: see text] The 2-O-[3-(2'-benzyloxyphenyl)-3,3-dimethylpropanoate] and 2-O-[3-(2'-benzyloxy-4',6'-dimethylphenyl)-3,3-dimethylpropanoate] esters enable the synthesis of a range of beta-glucosides and alpha-mannosides through neighboring participation in excellent yield, and are removed by hydrogenolysis in concert with the cleavage of benzyl esters in the presence of other esters making them particularly well suited to the stereocontrolled synthesis of glycosyl esters.