Temporary attachment of carbohydrates to cyclopeptide templates: a new strategy for single-bead analysis of multivalent neoglycopeptides

Employing a cleavable carbohydrate–peptide linker, a new strategy for single-bead analysis of multivalent cyclic neoglycopeptides based on Edman degradation is described. Edman degradation of glycopeptides is hampered by the acid lability of the glycosidic bond and potential incompatibilities of phenylthiohydantoin (PTH) derivatives of glycosylated amino acids with PTH derivatives of the proteinogenic amino acids. To overcome this problem, carbohydrates are detached from the cyclopeptide templates before single-bead analysis, allowing for micro sequencing under routine conditions. With this strategy, application of multivalent cyclic neoglycopeptides in split-mix libraries with a subsequent screening process becomes possible for the first time.     

Heterograft copolymers of poly(ε‐caprolactone) prepared by combination of ATRA “grafting onto” and ATRP “grafting from” processes

This paper aims at reporting on the synthesis of a heterograft copolymer by combining the “grafting onto” process based on atom transfer radical addition (ATRA) and the “grafting from” process by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The statistical copolymerization of ε‐caprolactone (εCL) and α‐chloro‐ε‐caprolactone (αClεCL) was initiated by 2,2‐dibutyl‐2‐stanna‐1,3‐dioxepane (DSDOP), followed by ATRA of parts of the chlorinated units of poly(αClεCL‐co‐εCL) on the terminal double bond of α‐MeO,ω‐CH₂?CH? CH₂? CO₂‐poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO). The amphiphilic poly(εCL‐g‐EO) graft copolymer collected at this stage forms micelles as supported by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The unreacted pendant chloro groups of poly(εCL‐g‐EO) were used to initiate the ATRP of styrene with formation of copolymer with two populations of randomly distributed grafts, that is PEO and polystyrene. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 6015–6024, 2006     

Automated carbohydrate synthesis to drive chemical glycomics

This feature article describes the development of the first automated solid-phase oligosaccharide synthesizer. A series of chemical challenges had to be addressed to accomplish this breakthrough and provide rapid access to oligosaccharides of biological significance. Accelerated synthesis of glycoconjugates promises to greatly impact the emerging field of glycobiology. Chemical glycomics uses synthetic carbohydrates and analogs to study their role in recognition, signal transduction pathways and other events of fundamental biomedical significance and shapes up to become the next major wave in biomedical research. The automated synthesis of a novel malaria vaccine candidate is discussed to illustrate the medical potential of chemical glycomics.     

Synthesis of C-aryl and C-alkyl glycosides using glycosyl phosphates

[reaction: see text] Mannosyl and glucosyl phosphate donors were successfully used in constructing C-aryl linkages common to many natural products via a Lewis acid induced Fries-like rearrangement. The rearrangement was stereo- and regiospecific, yielding only one C-glycoside product. C-Alkyl glycoside carbohydrate mimetics were generated by using silicon-derived C-nucleophiles and glycosyl phosphates.     

Optimization of Glycosylation Reactions in a Microreactor

Glycosylations are notoriously difficult reactions that require extensive optimization regarding the type of anomeric leaving group, solvent, reaction temperature, and reaction time. Described is the use of a silicon‐based microreactor to screen reaction conditions and to scale‐up synthetic procedures. For the first time, glycosyl phosphates were employed in a microreactor. The optimized reaction conditions were successfully transferred to a batch process.     

Linear synthesis of the tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens Globo-H,SSEA-3, and Gb3

The tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens Globo-H, SSEA-3, and Gb3 were synthesized in a linear fashion using glycosyl phosphate monosaccharide building blocks. All of the building blocks were prepared from readily available common precursors. The difficult alpha-(1-->4-cis)-galactosidic linkage was installed using a galactosyl phosphate donor with high selectivity. Introduction of the beta-galactosamine unit required the screening a variety of amine protecting groups to ensure good donor reactivity and protecting group compatibility. An N-trichloroacetyl-protected galactosamine donor performed best for the installation of the beta-glycosidic linkage. Conversion of the trichloroacetyl group to the N-acetyl group was achieved under mild conditions, fully compatible with the presence of multiple glycosidic bonds. This synthetic strategy is expected to be amenable to the synthesis of the globo-series of tumor antigens on solid-support.     

Assembly of a series of malarial glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor oligosaccharides

We report an efficient and convergent synthesis of a series of oligosaccharides comprised of the malaria GPI glycan (2a), a promising anti-malaria vaccine candidate currently in preclinical trials and several related oligosaccharide sequences (3-8) that are possible biosynthetic precursors of the malarial GPI. A flexible synthetic strategy is disclosed that relies on a late-stage coupling between oligomannosides of varying length and pseudo-disaccharide glycosyl acceptor 11 to readily access various malarial GPI structures. Phosphorylation was accomplished by mild and efficient H-phosphonate chemistry before the final deprotection was carried out by using sodium in ammonia. The direct connection of a thiol group via a phosphate diester linkage to the inositol moiety provides a handle for easy conjugation of the GPI glycan to carrier proteins, immobilization on carbohydrate microarrays and photo-affinity labels identification. These synthetic oligosaccharides will serve as molecular probes.