Synthesis of proteophosphoglycans of Leishmania major and Leishmania mexicana

A novel approach for the synthesis of various fragments of proteophosphoglycans from Leishmania major and Leishmania mexicana proteophosphoglycans has been developed. These compounds have been obtained by coupling alpha-mannosyl and alpha-N-acetyl-glucosamine phosphoramidite derivatives with the serine hydroxyl of various amino acids and peptides to give, after oxidation with tert-BuOOH, phosphotriesters exclusively as alpha-anomers in good yield. The resulting compounds could be deblocked using conventional methods. Glycophosphorylation of preassembled and properly protected peptides was found to be more efficient for the preparation of proteophosphoglycan fragments than a building block approach strategy using a phosphoglycosylserine derivative.