Masked Thiol Sugars: Chemical Behavior and Synthetic Applications of S‐Glycopyranosyl‐N‐monoalkyl Dithiocarbamates

The chemical behavior of S‐glycopyranosyl‐N‐monoalkyl dithiocarbamates (DTCs) as masked 1‐glycosyl thiols, easily prepared by the nucleophilic displacement of 1‐halo sugars with dithiocarbamate salts of primary amines, has been studied and synthetically exploited. This behavior relies on the abstraction of the proton of the carbamate functionality that allows controlled access to thiolate sugar intermediates. The basic character of the DTC salts used as reagents leads to thiolates that evolve in situ to symmetrical diglycosyldisulfides (DGDSs) when long reaction times are allowed. Alternatively, controlled unmasking of the thiolate function can be efficiently attained by treatment with an external base of isolated anomeric glycosyl DTCs, the formation of which is prevalent when using short reaction times. In this manner, a second methodology for the preparation of symmetrical DGDSs and a chemical protocol for the S‐glycosylation of any electrophilic substrate are established. The applications of this last strategy for the preparation of thioglycosyl vinyl sulfones, thiodisaccharides, and S‐linked homo‐ and heterodivalent neoglycoconjugates are described as a proof‐of‐concept of the great potential of the sugar DTCs in any chemical scenario in which the covalent attachment of a thiol sugar is required. The evaluation of the biological functionality of some divalent sulfurated sugar systems is also described.     

Endohexosaminidase-catalysed glycosylation with oxazoline donors: fine tuning of catalytic efficiency and reversibility

A complete series of oxazoline di-, tri-, tetra-, and hexasaccharides, corresponding to the core sections of N-linked glycoprotein high mannose glycans, together with the corresponding oligosaccharides containing a central glucose unit, were synthesised and tested as glycosyl donors for glycosylation of a GlcNAcAsn glycosyl amino acid catalysed by the endohexosaminidases M (Endo M), A (Endo A) and H (Endo H). Whilst Endo H did not catalyse any glycosylation reactions, both Endo M and Endo A efficiently catalysed glycosylations that were not limited to donors containing the Manbeta(1-->4)GlcNAc linkage. Precise structure activity relationships and time course studies have revealed fine-tuning of the efficiency of the synthetic processes which correlated both with the enzyme used and the precise oxazoline structure. Efficient irreversible glycosylation was achievable with both Endo M and Endo A, further demonstrating the use of structurally modified oxazoline donors as transition state mimics in order to promote enzyme-catalysed synthesis, whilst precluding product hydrolysis; enzymes in these cases display "glycoligase" activity.     

Glycopeptide synthesis through endo-glycosidase-catalyzed oligosaccharide transfer of sugar oxazolines: probing substrate structural requirement

An array of sugar oxazolines was synthesized and tested as donor substrates for the Arthrobacter endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase (Endo-A)-catalyzed glycopeptide synthesis. The experiments revealed that the minimum structure of the donor substrate required for Endo-A catalyzed transglycosylation is a Man beta1-->4-GlcNAc oxazoline moiety. Replacement of the beta-D-Man moiety with beta-D-Glc, beta-D-Gal, and beta-D-GlcNAc monosaccharides resulted in the loss of substrate activity for the disaccharide oxazoline. Despite this, the enzyme could tolerate modifications such as attachment of additional sugar residues or a functional group at the 3- and/or 6-positions of the beta-D-Man moiety, thus allowing a successful transfer of selectively modified oligosaccharides to the peptide acceptor. On the other hand, the enzyme has a great flexibility for the acceptor portion and could take both small and large GlcNAc-peptides as the acceptor. The studies implicate a great potential of the endoglycosidase-catalyzed transglycosylation for constructing both natural and selectively modified glycopeptides.     

Molecular basis for antifreeze activity difference of two insect antifreeze protein isoforms

The insect spruce budworm(Choristoneura fumiferana) produces antifreeze protein(AFP) to assist in the protection of the over-wintering larval stage and contains multiple isoforms. Structures for two isoforms,known as CfAFP-501 and CfAFP-337,show that both possess similar left-handed β-helical structure,although thermal hysteresis activity of the longer isoform CfAFP-501 is three times that of CfAFP-337. The markedly enhanced activity of CfAFP-501 is not proportional to,and cannot be simply accounted for,by the increased ice-binding site resulting from the two extra coils in CfAFP-501. In or-der to investigate the molecular basis for the activity difference and gain better understanding of AFPs in general,we have employed several different computational methods to systematically study the structural properties and ice interactions of the AFPs and their deletion models. In the context of intact AFPs,a majority of the coils in CfAFP-501 has better ice interaction and causes stronger ice lattice disruption than CfAFP-337,strongly suggesting a cooperative or synergistic effect among β-helical coils. The synergistic effect would play a critical role and make significant contributions to the anti-freeze activity β-helical antifreeze proteins. This is the first time that synergistic effect and its implica-tion for antifreeze activity are reported for β-helical antifreeze proteins.     

Designing structural motifs for clickamers: exploiting the 1,2,3-triazole moiety to generate conformationally restricted molecular architectures

Noncovalent interactions, especially hydrogen-bonding interactions as well as electrostatic forces, confined within one macromolecule are the key to designing foldamers that adopt well-defined conformations in solution. In the context of significant recent activities in the area of triazole-connected foldamers, so-called clickamers, we present a fundamental study that compares various model compounds that bear adjacent N-, O-, or F-heteroatom substituents. The interplay of attractive and repulsive interactions leads to rotational constraints around the single bonds attached to both the 1- and 4-positions of the 1,2,3-triazole moiety and should therefore be able to induce well-defined conformational preferences in higher oligomers and polymers, that is, foldamers. Various compounds were synthesized and characterized with regard to their preferred conformations in all three aggregation states--that is, in the gas phase, in solution as well as in the solid state--by employing DFT calculations, NMR spectroscopic experiments, and X-ray crystallography, respectively. On the basis of the thus-obtained general understanding of the conformational behavior of the individual connection motifs, heterostructures were prepared from different motifs without affecting their distinct folding characteristics. Therefore, this work provides a kind of foldamer construction kit, which should enable the design of various clickamers with specific shape and incorporated functionality.     

A Unified Strategy for the Synthesis of Mucin Cores 1–4 Saccharides and the Assembled Multivalent Glycopeptides

By displaying different O‐glycans in a multivalent mode, mucin and mucin‐like glycoproteins are involved in a plethora of protein binding events. The understanding of the roles of the glycans and the identification of potential glycan binding proteins are major challenges. To enable future binding studies of mucin glycan and glycopeptide probes, a method that gives flexible and efficient access to all common mucin core‐glycosylated amino acids was developed. Based on a convergent synthesis strategy starting from a shared early stage intermediate by differentiation in the glycoside acceptor reactivity, a common disaccharide building block allows for the creation of extended glycosylated amino acids carrying the mucin type‐2 cores 1–4 saccharides. Formation of a phenyl‐sulfenyl‐N‐Troc (Troc=trichloroethoxycarbonyl) byproduct during N‐iodosuccinimide‐promoted thioglycoside couplings was further characterized and a new methodology for the removal of the Troc group is described. The obtained glycosylated 9‐fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc)‐protected amino acid building blocks are incorporated into peptides for multivalent glycan display.     

A double regio- and stereoselective glycosylation strategy for the synthesis of N-glycans

A building block approach for biantennary N-linked oligosaccharides from glycoproteins (N-glycans) has been developed. Starting from a core trisaccharide (beta-mannosyl chitobiose) containing a benzylidene-protected beta-mannoside, the attachment of the disaccharide building blocks for the antennae can be performed in a double regio- and stereoselective manner. A short synthesis of a GlcNPhtbeta1,2Man donor was developed. The benzylidene acetal moiety, as a minimal protection of the beta-mannoside, allows selective alpha-glycosylation at OH-3 of the 2,3-diol with GlcNbeta1,2Man trichloroacetimidate donors. Subsequent debenzylidenation leads to a 4,6-diol, which can be selectively extended at OH-6. Overreaction at OH-4 was generally low when phthalimido-protected donors were used. This general strategy represents a modular synthesis of N-glycans and their glycoconjugates.     

Sugar-assisted ligation for the synthesis of glycopeptides

Chemical synthesis of glycoproteins from readily available materials is a powerful method for obtaining a pure product with full control of its atomic structure. Sugar-assisted ligation (SAL) is an emerging approach that allows the synthesis of a large glycopeptide from two unprotected fragments. Contrary to other ligation methods that are limited to the use of a cysteine residue or depend on external auxiliary, SAL takes advantage of the existing sugars in glycopeptides to promote proximity between the two peptides to facilitate an amide bond formation.     

A Convergent Strategy for the Synthesis of Type‐1 Elongated Mucin Cores 1–3 and the Corresponding Glycopeptides

Mucins are a class of highly O‐glycosylated proteins found on the surface of cells in epithelial tissues. O‐Glycosylation is crucial for the functionality of mucins and changes therein can have severe consequences for an organism. With that in mind, the elucidation of interactions of carbohydrate binding proteins with mucins, whether in morbidly altered or unaltered conditions, continue to shed light on mechanisms involved in diseases like chronic inflammations and cancer. Despite the known importance of type‐1 and type‐2 elongated mucin cores 1–4 in glycobiology, the corresponding type‐1 structures are much less well studied. Here, the first chemical synthesis of extended mucin type‐1 O‐glycan core 1–3 amino acid structures based on a convergent approach is presented. By utilizing differentiation in acceptor reactivity, shared early stage Tn‐ and T‐acceptor intermediates were elongated with a common type‐1 [β‐D ‐Gal‐1,3‐β‐D ‐GlcNAc] disaccharide, which allows for straightforward preparation of diverse glycosylated amino acids carrying the type‐1 mucin core 1–3 saccharides. The obtained glycosylated 9‐fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc)‐protected amino acid building blocks were employed in synthesis of type‐1 mucin glycopeptides, which are useful in biological applications.     

Mimicking the properties of antifreeze glycoproteins: synthesis and characterization of a model system for ice nucleation and antifreeze studies

Synthesis of beta-D-Gal-(1 --> 3)-beta-D-GalNAc coupled to HOC2H4NHCOC15H30SH is described. This compound was coadsorbed at various proportions with C2H5OC2H4NHCOC15H30SH to form statistically mixed self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold in an attempt to mimic the properties of the active domain in antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs). The monolayers were characterized by null ellipsometry, contact angle goniometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy. The disaccharide compound adsorbed preferentially, and SAMs prepared at a solution molar ratio >0.3 displayed total wetting. The mixed SAMs showed well-organized alkyl chains up to a disaccharide surface fraction of 0.8. The amount of gauche conformers in the alkyls increased rapidly above this point, and the monolayers became disordered and less densely packed. Furthermore, the generated mixed SAMs were subjected to water vapor at constant relative humidity and the subsequent ice crystallization on a cooled substrate was monitored via an optical microscope. Interestingly, rapid crystallization occurred within a narrow range of temperatures on mixed SAMs with a high disaccharide content, surface fraction >0.3. The reported crystallization temperatures and the ice layer topography were compared with results obtained for a much simpler reference system composed of -OH/-CH3 terminated n-alkanethiols in order to account for changes in topography of the water/ice layer with surface energy. Although preliminary, the obtained results can be useful in the search for the molecular mechanism behind the antifreeze activity of AFGPs.     

Collision-induced dissociation of flavonoid 7-O-diglycoside cations: elucidation of important structural motifs by selection of the cationizing reaction

Flavonoids are ubiquitous molecules in nature and are found in almost all plants, including fruits and vegetables. Although flavonoids are structurally similar, subtle differences in their structures lead to important changes in their biological activities. Over years, mass spectrometry has become an ideal tool for the characterization of those important molecules. In particular to overcome the challenge of structure assignment, tandem mass spectrometry was used in numerous studies. In the present study, we submitted selected flavonoid 7- O-diglycosides to electrospray ionization to prepare different kinds of flavonoid ions, i.e. protonated, sodium- cationized and copper-cationized molecules. Most of the investigated reactions are already described in the literature in several papers and the aim of the present study is to present concise and coherent relations between CID reactions, cationizing agents and flavonoid 7-O-diglycoside structures. Some insights in the reaction mechanisms and the role of the cationizing particles will also be attempted.     

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.