Preparation of linear oligosaccharides by a simple monoprotective chemo-enzymatic approach

A monoprotective approach, involving acetyl ester as unique protective group in oligosaccharides synthesis, has been developed. Starting from peracetylated monosaccharides and glycals, by using an efficient and selective chemo-enzymatic ‘one-pot’ strategy (a regioselective hydrolysis catalyzed by immobilized lipases followed by a chemical acyl migration), different carbohydrate acceptors, only protected with acetyl ester, can be achieved. If combined with the use of an acetylated glycosyl donor, the glycosylation reaction with these glycosyl acceptors leads to peracetylated oligosaccharides. These compounds can be directly used as intermediates for the synthesis of glycopeptides used as antitumoral vaccines and, at the end of the process, can be easily fully deprotected in only one step. Thus, these key building blocks have been successfully used in glycosylation reactions for an efficient construction of peracetylated disaccharides, such as the biological relevant lactosamine, in multigram scale. Subsequently, glycosylation with the 3OH-tetraacetyl-α-d-galactose, used as carbohydrate acceptor, allowed the synthesis of a peracetylated N-trisaccharidic precursor of the lacto-N-neo-tetraose antigen. Extending this strategy to a 3OH-di-acetyl galactal, one peracetylated precursor of the T tumor-associated carbohydrate antigen has been synthesized.This efficient approach, characterized by the use of the acetyl ester as only protecting group during all the synthetical steps expected, represents an easy and efficient alternative to the classical synthetic methods in carbohydrate chemistry that involve several protecting group manipulation.