Syntheses of anomerically phosphodiester-linked oligomers of the repeating units of the Haemophilus influenzae types c and f capsular polysaccharides

Spacer-equipped dimers and trimers of the repeating units of the capsular polysaccharide of Haemophilus influenzae type c, -4)-3-O-Ac-beta-D-GlcpNAc-(1-->3)-alpha-D-Galp-(1-OPO(3-)-, and type f, -3)-beta-D-GalpNAc-(1-->4)-3-O-Ac-alpha-D-GalpNAc-(1-OPO(3-)-, have been synthesized for use in immunological studies. H-Phosphonate chemistry was used for the formation of the interglycosidic phosphate diester linkages. Two types of building blocks, a spacer glycoside disaccharide starting monomer (15 and 22) and an anomeric monoester alpha-H-phosphonate disaccharide elongating monomer (12 and 27), were built up for each serotype structure from properly protected monosaccharide precursors using mainly thioglycosides as glycosyl donors. Stereospecificity in the formation of the alpha-linked monoester H-phosphonate was possible in type c through crystallization of the pure alpha-anomer of the precursor hemiacetal from an alpha/beta-mixture, whereas in type f, the hemiacetal was isolated directly as exclusively the alpha-anomer. Subsequent phosphonylation using triimidazolylphosphine was performed without anomerization. Formation of the anomeric phosphate diester linkages was performed using pivaloyl chloride as coupling reagent followed by I(2)/H(2)O oxidation of the formed diester H-phosphonates. Original experiments afforded no diester product at all, but optimization of the oxidation conditions (lowering the temperature and dilution with pyridine prior to I(2) addition) gave the dimers in good yields (71% and 81%) and, subsequently, after removal of a temporary silyl protecting group in the dimers, the trimers in fair yields (36% and 37%), accompanied by hydrolysis of the dimer phosphate linkage. One-step deprotection through catalytic hydrogenolysis efficiently afforded the target dimer (30 and 36) and trimer structures (32 and 39). The synthetic scheme allows for further elongation to give higher oligomers.