Novel Syntheses of Diphenyl and/or Trimethylene Dithioacetals of Mono- and Oligosaccharides in 90% Trifluoroacetic Acid

Regioselective Dehydration of Sugar Thioacetals under Mild Conditions

Sugars are abundant in waste biomass, making them sustainable chiral building blocks for organic synthesis. The demand for chiral saturated heterocyclic rings for pharmaceutical applications is increasing as they provide well-defined three-dimensional frameworks that show increased metabolic resistance. A range of sugar thioacetals can be dehydrated selectively at C-2 under mild basic conditions, and the resulting ketene thioacetals can be applied to the production of useful chiral building blocks via further selective dehydration reactions.

Surfactant-mediated thioglycosylation of 1-hydroxy sugars in water

Thioglycosides are an important class of sugars, since they can be used as non-ionic biosurfactants, biomimetic glycosides, and building blocks for carbohydrate synthesis. Previously, Brønsted- or Lewis-acid-catalyzed dehydrative glycosylations between a 1-hydroxy sugar and a thiol have been reported to yield open-chain dithioacetal sugars as the major products instead of the desired thioglycosides. These dithioacetal sugars are by-products derived from the endocyclic bond cleavage of the thioglycosides. Herein, we report dehydrative glycosylation in water mediated by a Brønsted acid-surfactant combined catalyst (BASC). Glycosylations between 1-hydroxy furanosyl/pyranosyl sugars and primary, secondary, and tertiary aliphatic/aromatic thiols in the presence of dodecyl benzenesulfonic acid (DBSA) provided the thioglycoside products in moderate to good yields. Microwave irradiation led to improvements in the yields and a shortening of the reaction time. Remarkably, open-chain dithioacetal sugars were not detected in the DBSA-mediated glycosylations in water. This method is a simple, convenient, and rapid approach to produce a library of thioglycosides without the requirement of anhydrous conditions. Moreover, this work also provides an excellent example of complementary reactivity profiles of glycosylation in organic solvents and water.

Synthesis of α-L-rhamnosyl ceramide and evaluation of its binding with anti-rhamnose antibodies

An α-L-rhamnosyl ceramide (1, α-L-RhaCer) has been prepared that was recognized by anti-L-rhamnose (anti-Rha) antibodies. During these studies we explored the use of an α-L-rhamnosyl thioglycoside and a trichloroacetimidate as a glycosyl donors. Subsequently, the acceptors desired for glycosylation, 3-O-benzoylazidosphingosine or 3-O-alloxycarbonylsphingosine, were prepared from D-xylose. The thioglycoside donor, 2,3,4-tri-O-acetyl-1-(4-tolyl)thio-α-L-rhamnopyranoside, and the trichloroacetimidate donor, 2,3,4-tri-O-acetyl-1-(2,2,2-trichloroethanimidate)-α-L-rhamnopyranoside, were synthesized in 50% and 78% yield overall, respectively. The synthesis of the glycosylation acceptor employed an addition-fragmentation olefination that was successfully carried out in 53% yield. With the successful synthesis of key intermediates, α-L-RhaCer (1) was prepared without any insurmountable obstacles. Anti-Rha antibodies were prepared in BALB/c mice by immunizing them with rhamnose-ovalbumin (Rha-Ova) with Sigma Adjuvant System (SAS) and the anti-L-Rha antibodies were isolated from the blood sera. Liposomes and EL4 tumor cells were used as model systems to demonstrate the ability of 1 to insert into a lipid bilayer. The interaction of the liposomes or the EL4 cells with α-L-RhaCer (1) and anti-Rha antibodies were investigated by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry, respectively, to confirm the ability of glycolipid 1 to be displayed on the tumor cell surface as well as the ability to be recognized by anti-Rha antibodies.

Synthesis of apiose-containing oligosaccharide fragments of the plant cell wall: fragments of rhamnogalacturonan-II side chains A and B, and apiogalacturonan

Fragments of pectic polysaccharides rhamnogalacturonan-II (RG-II) and apiogalacturonan were synthesised using p-tolylthio apiofuranoside derivatives as key building blocks. Apiofuranose thioglycosides can be conveniently prepared by cyclization of the corresponding dithioacetals possessing a 2,3-O-isopropylidene group, which is required for preservation of the correct (3R) configuration of the apiofuranose ring. The remarkable stability of this protecting group in apiofuranose derivatives requires its replacement with a more reactive protecting group, such as a benzylidene acetal which was used in the synthesis of trisaccharide β-Rhap-(1→3')-β-Apif-(1→2)-α-GalAp-OMe. The X-ray crystal structure of the protected precursor of this trisaccharide has been elucidated.

Conformational analysis of sulfur-containing 6-deoxy-l-hexose derivatives by molecular modeling and NMR spectroscopy. A theoretical study and experimental evidence of intramolecular nonbonded interactions between sulfur and oxygen

6-Deoxy-l-mannose diphenyldithioacetal (1) unexpectedly gave the rearranged products phenyl 3,4-di-O-acetyl-2-S-phenyl-1,2-dithio-6-deoxy-beta-l-glucopyranoside (9) and 3,4-di-O-acetyl-2,5-anhydro-6-deoxy-l-glucose diphenyldithioacetal (10) upon treatment with acetyl chloride, while 6-deoxy-l-mannose ethylenedithioacetal (3) yielded (4aR,6S,7S,8R,8aS)-7,8-diacetyloxy-6-methylhexahydro-4aH-[1,4]dithiino[2,3b]pyran (11), whose structure was further confirmed by X-ray diffraction, and 3,4-di-O-acetyl-2,5-anhydro-l-rhamnose ethylenedithioacetal (12). The geometry of the four rearranged products as well as that of 1-thio-6-deoxy-l-mannopyranosides 5 and 7 and their acetyl derivatives 6 and 8 was studied by density functional theory (B3LYP/6-31G) molecular models, in combination with a Karplus-type analysis of the NMR vicinal coupling constants, revealing that the six-membered ring of pyranosides 5-9 and 11 exists in a slightly distorted chair conformation (6-13% distortion) and that the conformational behavior of the 2,5-anhydro-6-deoxy-l-glucose dithioacetals 10 and 12 is strongly influenced by the presence of stabilizing intramolecular nonbonded sulfur-oxygen 1,4- and 1,5-interactions. Compounds 9-12 were formed by a molecular rearrangement via sulfonium ion intermediates followed by stereoselective intramolecular cyclizations as formulated by the quantum chemical calculations performed in the present study.